covid-19

private doctors

BMC

Coronavirus toll in India rises to 16, number of cases 694 Health ministry expresses hope, says the rate at which the infection is increasing is ‘relatively stable’.

Bhabha Hospital

Rajawadi Hospital

BMC doctors

Two hundred and fifty private doctors, including pulmonologists and gynaecologists, have offered to help the BMC in the battle against coronavirus

Maharashtra Medical Council

Municipal Commissioner Praveen Pardeshi

Chronically ill patients stare at an uncertain future as non-urgent surgeries and treatments have been cancelled For many patients, stopping treatment during lockdown will only worsen their condition.

115 of them will undergo training today and will be deputed on Saturday at five civic hospitals wherepatients will be treated.Some of the city’s top– who take home seven-figure salary cheques -- are giving it all up for a month to help thein its grinding battle against coronavirus.With its own doctors facing burnout with 12-hour shifts and no visits home allowed, the BMC had requested the Indian Medical Association (IMA) to identify 50 doctors who could join five civic-run hospitals now ready to treat covid-19 positive patients. But within an hour of the IMA circulating a message, 250 doctors signed up.The first batch of 115 of them – pulmonologists, physicians, anaesthetists, radiologists, even gynaecologists – will undergo training on Friday and will be deputed on Saturday at Kurla’s, Ghatkopar’s, Jogeshwari’s Trauma Care Hospital, Kandivali’s Dr Ambedkar Hospital and Bandra’s Bhabha Hospital.The BMC will add 15 more hospitals in a week or so to treat covid-19 cases and that is when the rest of the doctors who have volunteered will be deployed. They will be paid an honorarium of Rs 80,000 each.The entry of private doctors will bring some much-needed respite for, especially those working at Kasturba, the only hospital in city treating covid-19 positive patients. While the BMC has been moving patients to private hospitals wherever possible, a bulk of the covid-19 positive patients remain at Kasturba.The hospital’s 24 doctors, 45 nurses and 31 supporting staff are currently treating 124 patients, 77 of them covid-19 positive, working 10-12 hour shifts and not getting to go home for days together.Its outpatient department receives nearly 800 patients a day. The hospital since January 24 has admitted 1407 suspected covid-19 cases.Dr Shivkumar Utture, member IMA and president,, who is coordinating with, said the private doctors, some of whom have decades of experience, will lend strength to the BMC’s “robust” response to the crisis.A senior doctor in BMC’s covid-19 team said two weeks ago a team doctors was constituted to deal with the coronavirus crisis. “At that point, Kasturba had only 40 suspected cases of covid-19 infection. Now, the number of positive cases is double that number” he said.Another BMC doctor, who is currently working at Kasturba, said the risk of contracting the virus is uppermost in the mind of every doctor treating covid-19 patients and thus the private doctors’ decision to volunteer to help us is “brave and praiseworthy.”“We stay on the campus and get to go home only once a week,” he said, adding that the private doctors who have signed up to help will take a whole lot of load off us.