Mumbai rains: Heavy rain floods KEM Hospital, raises concern over infrastructure

The unseasonal and excessively heavy rains on Monday not just caused havoc on the roads and railway tracks but also flooded the King Edward Memorial (KEM) Hospital, causing major inconvenience to hundreds of patients and visitors. While medical services and emergency care remained uninterrupted, many patients were forced to sit or wait in waterlogged passages, raising serious concerns over hospital infrastructure and disaster preparedness.

OPD and paediatric ICU (PICU) wards faced waterlogging. However, no patients from the PICU had to be relocated, and all children were well taken care of by the staff. “As soon as we realised that the water was entering inside, we alerted all the parents and asked them not to panic. We immediately asked our cleaning staff to manually drain the water out, and no damage to life or property was seen,” said Suhana Shaikh, a nurse from the hospital.

Patients raise concerns

“We have been visiting this hospital for the last four-five years since we shifted to Chembur from Mira Road. We have never seen such a problem occur. I was waiting in the OPD with my father, who recently had knee surgery. It was very risky for him to walk in ankle-deep water. The hospital staff should have been prepared for such situations, especially when they know that the hospital is in a low-lying area,” said Ronak Singh.

Even though the water was restricted to a few wards and waiting area passages, the waterlogging caused discomfort to the patients and staff. “We were waiting, and suddenly there was water under our feet. For some time initially, we did not understand what happened. Those who could find a place to sit could at least fold their legs and keep sitting. But we were standing. Our clothes got drenched. First only we have come here with our ailing family members. If such flooding happens inside the hospital, will that not cause more sickness?” questioned Malti Navare, who had come to the hospital with her son, who had fallen off a bike and had his leg plastered.

Hospital speaks

“As KEM Hospital lies in close proximity to Hindmata, it too suffered the impact of the drainage failure. If the water is drained thoroughly at Hindmata, none of these areas get flooded,” said Mohan Desai, medical superintendent. “This area is a natural low point as the slope starting from South Mumbai ends at F/South ward, where Hindmata is located. So there is no way we can increase the ground level here in between. Also, this hasn’t happened in the last two years when the water draining pumps functioned well at Hindmata. This happened because the rainfall pressure was unexpected. We immediately installed the water pumps that we have and also drained the water manually wherever possible. We have four small and two big pumps at present, and more will be procured, if need be,” he added.