MUMBAI: The surgery department at the state-run JJ Hospital and Grant Medical College is undergoing a huge overhaul. Three of the operation theatres will be converted into modular ones, with 34 additional beds for recovering patients which will allow them to reduce the waiting list of patients awaiting surgeries by half. This plan also includes a state-of-the-art audio-visual (AV) room where surgeries in the OTs can be transmitted live for students to watch.
The state government has released funds of more than ₹30 crores for this overhaul. Work on all these units is underway, and they are expected to be operational in the next six to eight months. Three of the existing modular OTs were set up with funds received under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) in 2008.

“Three of the six OTs of our department are already modular. Now, we will be integrating the other three as modular OTs. Both the surgical ICU (SICU) and recovery rooms will have 17 beds each,” said the head of the surgery Dr Ajay Bhandarwar.

Once the patients have undergone surgeries, they can be shifted to the SICU or the recovery room based on how severe their condition is, he added.

Currently, the department only has access to two beds in the critical care unit where other critical patients from super speciality and other departments of the hospital are also admitted during recovery.

“Since there aren’t enough beds for recuperating patients for post-operative care, many surgeries need to be delayed. The wait for elective surgeries can be as long as one month because of this. The new infrastructure would help us cut down this wait to one or two weeks,” said the associate professor in the department Dr Amol Wagh.

The number of resident doctors posted in the surgery department has increased from 27 to 32 this year. These additional residents can easily be posted in the SICU where they can learn critical care management, which is an essential part of their post-graduate studies, said Dr Bhandarwar. These new OTs as well as the existing ones would also be equipped with fibre optic cabling, which would connect them directly to the AV room. “Due to fear of infection, we usually don’t allow too many people in the OTs during an operation. The surgeries being conducted here can be transmitted to the OTs as well as other teaching hospitals which have the necessary infrastructure,” said Dr Bhandarwar.

Dr Wagh said the department can conduct around ten elective surgeries, over and above the emergency surgeries every day. Some of these are day surgeries in which the patients can be discharged on the same day, but in most cases, they require post-operative care. With more room for recovering patients, there would be a chance to conduct more surgeries as well.