Prevent waterlogging at KEM Hospital in future, Bombay HC tells BMC, state govt

A vacation bench of Justices Gauri V Godse and Somasekhar Sundaresan was hearing a suo motu PIL it had initiated on recent deaths of patients in government hospitals in the Nanded and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar districts of Maharashtra in 2023.

During earlier hearings on the PIL, the HC had raised concerns over issues of lack of medical staff and medical equipment and infrastructure at all civic and civil hospitals in the state.

On Thursday, advocate Mohit Khanna, appointed as amicus curiae to assist the court in the matter, produced news reports related to waterlogging at KEM Hospital and sought directions from the court to the civic body.

“The KEM hospital at one point of time was one of the top most hospitals, all over India people used to come from all over India for treatment…Look at the condition. The KEM hospital cannot allow waterlogging like this anywhere… There has to be hygiene and cleanliness. Something has to be done,” the bench orally remarked after perusing the photographs.

Additional Government Pleader Priyabhushan P Kakade for the state government, on instructions from the assistant dean of KEM Hospital, who was present in the court, submitted that it did not face such a situation due to flood water, and it intended to take remedial measures to avoid such incidents in future.

He also submitted that he will place on record the proposed action to be taken on behalf of the state health department to avoid such incidents henceforth.

The court issued notice to the BMC and asked its officials to visit the hospital and suggest remedial measures to address the grievances and file an affidavit before the court in that regard. The court also sought an affidavit from the state government on measures to be taken by the next hearing on June 16.