After the transfer of the Medical Superintendent (MS) of the Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) Hospital, Dr Bharat Singh, over the dirty and unkempt condition of toilets in the Out Patient Department (OPD), the Government and hospital authorities have closely looked into improving the sanitation of the hospital. In only a few months, the OPD is clean and the new MS, Dr Savita Babbar, has outsourced upkeep of toilets to cleaners on a daily wage basis to tidy up restrooms every hour on the hour.
The Pioneer had written a story about dirty toilets in the DDU Hospital as the poor sanitation had led women to use the men’s washroom. Dr Singh was removed from his position as MS after the article was published on August 20 and has been sent back to his previous position as a doctor at Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital.
For almost a year, the condition of the DDU Hospital OPD was poor in terms of infrastructure and sanitation. However, in spite of renovation of the department, the maintenance was so poor that the condition only worsened. There are only two men’s toilets and one women’s toilet in the entire OPD block. However, till a few months back the maintenance was so bad that the sinks in the lavatories were broken, there was no water supply and due to lack of cleanliness and overcrowding, women often had to use the men’s toilet. Though hospital authorities at that time pinned the blame on the Public Works Department (PWD) for not responding to the hospital’s requests for maintenance, the lackadaisical attitude of the hospital towards cleanliness and hygiene led to the spread of infection.
However, with the removal of Singh as the MS, things have significantly changed. The toilets are in perfect shape. While there is still one washroom for women and two for men, they are well-maintained and not overcrowded. The sinks are not broken and there is regular water supply. Babbar who just took office a week back as MS said that she has been overlooking the operations since Singh left and has especially focused on the washrooms. “The problem we face is that because the hospital is on the main road, the general public tends to walk in and use the washrooms in the OPD. This creates more chaos and unhygiene. But since we can’t stop people from coming in, we are addressing the issue,” she said.
Babbar has introduced a new system of sanitation for the entire hospital and also implemented a crowd management
technique. She informed, “We changed the sanitation agency that takes care of this issue. Now we have cleaners coming in on daily wage. We have laid down clear-cut rules for them in terms of hygiene. They all wear masks and hourly clean the toilets irrespective of whether it has been used or not.”
Additionally, Babbar has added more counters in the OPD to take care of the crowd. “The OPD used to be difficult to walk into because it used to be stuffed with people. However, now it is much more spaced out because the number of counters has increased and patients are not squeezed in. Strict instructions against spitting in campus and smoking bidi inside the hospital have also been put,” said the MS.