18 patients die in 18 hours at Kalwa hospital, high-level probe ordered

THANE: Just 48 hours after the deaths of five patients in a day led to a furore, 18 more deaths were reported at the Thane Municipal Corporation-run hospital in Kalwa in a span of 18 hours. Following the incident, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has ordered an investigation into the 23 deaths by a five-member committee.

Thirteen of the deaths occurred in the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital.

“My father Abdul Rahim Khan, 58, complained of breathlessness on Saturday afternoon and we brought him to the hospital around 2.30 pm,” Khan’s son Mohammed Sohail told HT. “But till 8 pm, the hospital procedures were on, and he was not admitted. He was kept earlier in the ward and was moved to the ICU around 11.30 and put on oxygen.”

Sohail said that his father looked all right till 2.30 am. “At 3.30 am, they said he had passed away,” he said. “In that one hour, we saw many relatives say their patients had been declared dead.” Added Khan’s relative Feroze Khan, “What happened in those early hours in the ICU that so many patients were declared dead? This must be probed.”

Jitendra Awhad, NCP MLA of the Kalwa-Mumbra assembly constituency, who was accused by Shinde aides of indulging in stunts when he raised a stink over the five deaths on Thursday, returned to the hospital on Sunday. Accusing the hospital and municipal administration of mismanagement, he aggressively questioned the dean Dr Rakesh Barot and medical superintendent Dr Aniruddha Malgaonkar about the deaths.

Awhad also played the political card. “Our president Sharad Pawar is in Solapur, but he tweeted, expressing his condolences,” he said. “But despite such a serious incident, our sensitive chief minister, who rules over the TMC and its hospitals, has not spoken or even sent the guardian minister to visit the hospital yet. When there is political patronage, I don’t think any action will be taken against the hospital administration or municipal administration.”

Awhad questioned why the administration had not organised more beds at other Thane hospitals, which are on TMC land, but run privately. “In emergencies like these, we have the right to ask them to reserve some beds for our patients,” he said. “After all, Kaushalya Hospital was given land by the civic body on a token Re 1 lease. The Thane civil hospital may have been relocated to the Thane Mental Hospital campus, but it has empty beds and should have been utilised.”

According to the hospital administration, after Thane civil hospital was demolished in March to be redeveloped as a 900-bed superspecialty hospital, the Kalwa hospital witnessed an increased influx of patients, especially from the lower income groups. Hospitals in the entire Thane district, which extends up to Ambarnath, refer their patients here. On Saturday, the 500-bed hospital had 588 patients admitted, and the daily inflow of casualty patients had increased from 175 to 325 patients.

Thane municipal commissioner Abhijit Bangar said that some of the patients were already admitted, and some referred by other hospitals. “That is why a clinical investigation is important to determine what treatment they had received earlier,” he said. Bangar said the committee would take direct feedback from patients’ relatives regarding the treatment given in the Kalwa hospital.

Asked if the hospital faced a crunch of trained staff, Bangar said the vacancies for nurses were recently filled with 40 recruits, and recruitment was on to fill vacancies of retired staff. “We also had 400 to 500 staffers who worked during Covid, and we have already shifted them to Kalwa hospital,” he said. “A large hospital needs to have 24-hour post-mortem services, and we will start them soon.”

To a question on whether the ₹605-crore funds for beautification of Thane and road repairs could have been diverted to hospital upgradation, Bangar said, “Just 10 days ago, the state sanctioned ₹60 crore for the hospital, and whatever is necessary will be done over the next 10 months.”

School education minister Deepak Kesarkar, who arrived at the hospital on the orders of the CM, said the ratio of 18 patients dying in a short span was high even for a 500-bed hospital. “I have given directives to officials to coordinate with the Thane civil hospital and private hospitals on TMC land to accommodate Kalwa hospital patients if necessary,” he said. “I don’t want to comment on allegations of medical negligence and mismanagement. The CM has ordered a transparent probe, and if negligence is found, action will be taken against the guilty.”

While terming the incident at Kalwa hospital “unfortunate”, public health minister Tanaji Sawant on Sunday said that he had asked the authorities to submit the report in 48 hours and would take stringent action against the culprits. Sawant added that for the government, the life of every citizen was important, irrespective of the region and city they belonged to. “So just because the incident occurred at Thane no one should politicise the issue,” he said.