For 10 days, 4 govt doctors have been waiting outside Breach Candy

The emergency medical team is not even allowed inside the hospital premises. Moreover, the doctors say the real emergency arose when the JJ Hospital, which is already in a bad shape, was told to assemble the team. They say the ambulance was fitted with a portable respirator and a defibrillator at the very last moment.

Attempting to explain how the state government managed to cover itself in embarrassment, sources in JJ Hospital say that protocol demands that every time the PM sets foot in Mumbai, an emergency medical team tails him wherever he goes. What if there is an accident or any other emergency en route? But why post a decrepit ambulance with a full-emergency team outside Breach Candy for nine days when the PM is being monitored round-the-clock by some of the country’s best doctors including his personal physicians Dr S.K. Manchanda, Dr Anoop Mishra and Dr Ramandeep Singh, all from New Delhi? No answers, the government is just following the rulebook to the last fullstop.

Doctors say that assembling such a large — and redundant — emergency team has disrupted patient care and teaching work in the government-run hospital. All three doctors in the team are either lecturers or associate professors at the Grant Medical College, which is affiliated to JJ Hospital. Moreover, since the Diwali vacation is underway, patient care requires as many physicians as can be summoned.

Asked why the ambulance has been stationed outside Breach Candy, Additional Commissioner of Police in charge of security at Breach Candy Hospital, Anil Dhere, told The Indian Express that it is necessary in case the PM needs to be moved to another hospital in an emergency. “Breach Candy’s ambulances might not be available at the time and so having a dedicated ambulance is essential,” he says. But, he clarifies, he had asked for only one doctor and the paramedical staff. “There was no need for four doctors.”

Yes, Dhere admits, Breach Candy Hospital is one of the best medical facilities in Mumbai and was on standby during the visits of world leaders such as Bill Clinton in March and Vladimir Putin in September. He adds there would be no cause for concern should an emergency arise.