Suburban hospitals get CT scanners

MUMBAI: Taking the quality of healthcare in the suburbs a notch higher, three of the main peripheral hospitals--Rajawadi in Ghatkopar, Bhagwati in Borivli and V N Desai in Santa Cruz--received CT scanners last week. While the installation of the machines is yet to be completed, the fact that these hospitals will now be better equipped to handle trauma and accident cases is cause for cheer.
The project should be completed in less than two months, said Dr S D Mishra, superintendent of V N Desai hospital.
"A CT scanner is important in accident and trauma cases. Earlier, we had to rush accident victims to Sion Hospital as it is better equipped to handle emergency cases,'' said Dr Ashok Khankal, superintendent of Rajawadi Hospital. He added that Rajawadi, which handles a large number of trauma cases, was also an important referral hospital in the eastern suburbs.
With civic-run peripheral hospitals being ill-equipped, most patients had to be shifted to teaching hospitals like KEM in Parel, Sion Hospital or Nair Hospital at Mumbai Central. This, according to Dr Khankal, wasted precious time and with Mumbai's traffic woes, the problem only worsened. "Often, people would shift to a private hospital as no civic hospital in the eastern suburbs could handle trauma cases,'' said Dr Khankal.
Chief superintendent of peripheral hospitals, Dr Seema Malik said with CT scanners being installed at these hospitals, the load on the teaching hospitals would be reduced. "These are major referral hospitals with smaller ones sending their patients here. This was the primary reason for providing them with CT scanners in the first phase of the upgradation plan,'' she said.
Dr Malik added that a total of 50 new posts had been created to increase manpower at these hospitals. "We are in the process of filling up posts for senior doctors, nurses, technicians and ward boys at these hospitals,'' she said. She added that over the past one year, the BMC had been trying to fill up vacant posts.