December 10: When the mayor made a surprise visit to the KEM hospital at Parel today, she experienced first-hand what anybody who has visited municipal hospitals will know. And if the post-KEM session carries through, Mumbai's municipal hospitals, the city's public health delivery systems, may change for the better.

Beginning with today's visit, the mayor and civic Health Committee chairperson Dr Ram Barot have decided to pay unannounced visits to all major BMC hospitals to ensure a cleaner ambience and better food for patients, if not better treatment itself.

After spending three hours at KEM with a harried dean trying her best to paint a hunky dory picture, Raut was unimpressed. ``The toilets and kitchen in the hospital are in a pathetic condition. Even the drainage pipes in the building are leaking at many places,'' she told reporters this evening.

Raut admitted that the systemic ills of civic hospitals could not be wished away immediately due to ``understandable'' procedural delays; yet, it was critical to correct the unhygienic conditions in hospitals.

``All major purchases of new machines and latest medical equipment need the sanction of the BMC standing committee and the general body, but there just cannot be any excuse for dirty toilets, badly maintained kitchens and heaps of uncleared hospital scrap,'' Raut said.

She was particularly pained by the filthy bathroom in the paediatric ward. ``The bathroom must not have been washed for ages. There were huge cobwebs all over and even the door was broken!,'' she said. However, she still managed to praise the city's largest and arguably among the best civic hospitals in India. ``Considering that KEM hospital attends to about 7,000 patients daily, mostly those from outside Mumbai, and the obvious lack of proper machines and other equipment, the condition of corridors, passages, and general wards was much better. Even the patients did not complain about anything,'' Raut pointed out.

The number of CT scans, sonography, dialysis and angiography machines in the hospital is completely insufficient to bear the present load of patients. ``I have told the dean to give me a list of such machines as I intend to get private sponsors for their purchase,'' Raut said.

She was also all praise for the 18-cot creche in the hospital for inhouse doctors and other non-medical staff.

When asked if her decision was fuelled by the announcement of the Mayor-in-Council system being introduced from April 1, 1998, in the BMC, Raut replied in the negative. ``I have made this decision as only personal visits without prior intimation to hospitals will make authorities attend to the basic requirements of the patients. It has no connection with yesterday's announcement by the chief minister,'' she claimed.

KEM dean Dr Pragnya Pai was not available for comment.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.