PMO lens on bad state of ESIC hospital in Worli

Most departments in the hospital remain locked, the roof is crumbling and the fire extinguishers are non-functional, raising questions on the safety of patients

A central government employee's fight to restore the dilapidated Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) hospital in Worli has finally borne fruit. Dinanath Kumar Paswan, the complainant who works with NEERI, who tried to get the state government to take remedial measures, has got a response from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), which he wrote to in September 2016, when everything else failed.

The PMO has asked the state to take immediate steps. And, the office of the Senior State Medical Commissioner (SSMC) too has woken up and instructed the commissioner of the ESI scheme to address the issue as ‘most urgent'.

"Due to the horrific condition of the hospital, patients don't dare to come there for treatment. There are hardly any doctors there, and those that are there behave rudely with patients as they are from a poor economic background," said Paswan, who was admitted in the hospital a few months back.

When mid-day visited the hospital, it found the beds were lying unused, the roof was crumbling, files were gathering dust and half the hospital didn't have lig­hts. Also, the fire extinguishers had long expired.

Despite repeated attempts, the commissioner of Senior State Medicine Dr Anita Sethi didn't respond to our calls.