Mumbai: At least 10 nurses working at Wockhardt Hospital, Mumbai Central, have tested positive for coronavirus, due to the utter callousness and mismanagement of the hospital administration.
Now, swab samples of 300 staffers have been collected and sent for testing at Kasturba Hospital. Following this emergency situation, the hospital has shut down all emergency services, OPDs and new admissions. Initially, two nurses tested positive, reportedly after coming
in contact with suspected corona patients admitted to the general ward of the hospital who later tested positive. The relatives of one of the nurses said the hospital had failed to control the spread of infection, causing more people to be affected, as all the while, the staff had been sharing the hospital canteen, hostels and bathrooms with corona-positive patients.
“The hospital administration has not provided personal protective equipment for frontline nurses and there are issues in quarantining and testing them, which in turn, has led to many nurses being infected and unknowingly spreading Covid-19,” he said. On March 20, two suspected and two confirmed CoVID-19 patients were brought to Wockhardt from Kasturba Hospital.
The confirmed cases were kept in isolation wards, while the suspected cases were kept in the general ICU wards, where non-COVID patients were also kept. “Later, on March 28, two nurses working in the same general ICU ward tested positive and many others began showing symptoms.
Their samples were sent for analysis. Eight more nurses tested positive in the ensuing days and 14 more are suspected to be corona-positive, they are in quarantine at the hospital,” said sources
Horrifyingly, instead of quarantining staff members displaying symptoms, the hospital asked them to continue working. One of the nurses who was directly exposed to a corona-positive case was on duty till April 1 morning. Another, who had developed symptoms for a few days, had to remain on duty until she became seriously ill.
“The BMC conducted an inspection at Wockhardt hospital on April 1. Nurses who identified themselves to civic officials as having been exposed to Covid-19 positive cases were reprimanded by senior hospital staff and management for having done so,” said one of the nurses. The hospital administration refrained from commenting on how many nurses had tested +ve.
“Sam - ples of all hospital staffers have been sent for analysis to Kasturba. For now, all emergency services, OPDs and admissions have been stopped,” said Dr Parag Rindani, associate vice-president, Wockhardt Hospital. Eight more nurses tested positive in the ensuing days and 14 more are suspected to be corona-positive, they are in quarantine at the hospital,” said sources.
