Monitoring and maintenance of engineering and power equipment at Mumbai's Hinduja Hospital brings Kiran Narvankar—like the doctors and healthcare staff—at the frontlines of the pandemic
You could be in the backdrop at the battlefield but still playing a critical role in trying to defeat the enemy. That is the role of 49-year-old Kiran Shridhar Narvankar, the engineering- and maintenance-in-charge at the multi-specialty, tertiary care P. D. Hinduja National Hospital in Mumbai—every day, non-stop, during the lockdown and while SARS-CoV-2 continues to spread in the country’s financial capital.
Being a premier medical emergency facility in the heart of Mumbai, which is reeling under the pressure of surging coronavirus cases each day, Hinduja Hospital’s role in dealing with the pandemic and other regular medical emergencies becomes crucial.
Narvankar has to ensure that there are no hiccups in the engineering department at the entire hospital complex—this includes managing electrical, mechanical supplies, building repairs, water and air-conditioning.
His morning starts at 10 am, with a look at the day’s line-up of activity, and discussing reports of breakdown of equipment or power in the hospital. This is followed by calls with top management to discuss future planning and updates of projects for the next fortnight. On-field monitoring and maintenance of machines is carried out post-lunch.
As the pandemic spreads, the hospital’s top management, in consultation with the civic authorities Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), made significant infrastructural changes. It built special isolation wards and ICUs for Covid19 patients, in a separate hospital building (Lalita Girdhar), where two floors were reserved—so that reverse isolation was maintained to safeguard patients recovering from the deadly virus.