3k minor TB surgeries, only 4 major ops in 4 yrs at civic-run Sewri hosp

Mumbai: While 3,022 tuberculosis (TB) patients underwent minor surgeries at the civic-run Sewri TB Hospital in the last four years, only 4 four could undergo major surgeries.
According to information gathered using the RTI Act, the BMC-run hospital operated on TB patients even during the Covid pandemic. However, most surgeries were minor — a bronchoscopy to examine the inside of the lungs, removal of excess fluid from the space between the lungs and chest wall, and biopsy.While 614 patients were operated on in 2021, the number was 769 in 2022 and increased to 1,051 patients last year, according to the RTI data gathered by south Mumbai-resident Chetan Kothari.
Of the major surgeries, such as a lobectomy (in which a lobe of the lung is removed), only four were done last year after the operation theatre was renovated. This year, no major surgery has been done.
"On a positive note, even during the Covid pandemic, many minor surgeries were performed," said Kothari. However, he said the BMC must explain the reason for not conducting more major surgeries.
According to a high-ranking civic official, major surgeries have always been a problem in the TB hospital. After surgeons in the hospital retired, no newcomer joined as replacements. In 2012, when Mumbai reported severely drug-resistant TB cases, the BMC invited private surgeons to operate.
However, this programme has been erratic. "After the OT was renovated last year, we planned to restart major surgeries in a large way, but the anaesthesia team is now missing," said the official.
However, BMC executive officer Dr Daksha Shah said that due to strides in modern medicine, the need for surgery has reduced. "We no longer get many patients with chronic TB disease whose lungs are irreversibly damaged. Moreover, we offer medications and nutritional support," she said.
Kothari, who also sought information about TB infection among staffers of the TB Hospital, said the BMC admitted to only six staffers getting TB between 2020 and May 2024. In the past, scores of staffers, including doctors, nurses and ward boys, would contract the infectious disease; the BMC has in the last few years started a nutrition programme for them as well.