KEM Hospital orthopaedic building lift shut for a week, patients forced to use stairs

The lift in the orthopaedic building of KEM Hospital in Mumbai has been out of service for about a week, leaving patients distressed. Fracture patients, people with disabilities, accident victims and those undergoing post-operative treatment have to use the stairs to reach the upper floors. Some patients are being carried up the stairs on wheelchairs and stretchers, raising questions about their safety.

In a video that went viral on social media, a patient with a plaster cast on his leg is seen sitting on the stairs and making his way down. The hospital administration has since come in for heavy criticism.

It is alleged that the hospital administration and the engineering department have taken no concrete step to repair the lift even though it has been shut. The demand is that the lift be made operational immediately and that officials responsible for the delay be investigated. On the issue, Amey Ghole, Shiv Sena group leader in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, launched a sharp attack on the civic administration.

Ghole asked whether the hospital administration was asleep while patients continued to suffer. According to him, the news that the lift of the KEM Hospital OPD department, relied on by ordinary and poor patients of Mumbai, has been shut for several days is deeply infuriating. If the elderly, people with disabilities and those battling serious illnesses have to climb stairs, what could be a greater failure, he asked. He asked why patients who come for treatment are being punished with a climb up the stairs first, and whether the administration has no regard for patients' lives and pain.

Ghole said a tender for the safety and repair of the hospital's various lifts was issued on November 6. He asked why these problems were not resolved earlier.

He said municipal hospitals exist to treat the poor, not to test their patience. Merely fixing the lift will not end the matter, he said. Responsibility must be fixed and the guilty punished. He firmly demanded that the civic administration take notice itself and act immediately. Ghole also said negligence that plays with patients' lives will not be tolerated.

Ghole has put forward four demands. First, that the shut lifts be repaired immediately and made safe for patients to use. Second, that a full report on how many days the lifts have been out of service be made public. Third, that a high-level inquiry be held into the maintenance contractor, engineers and responsible officials. Fourth, that officials found guilty face strict disciplinary action, including suspension, and that the contractor be fined.