“Inside, the wards are very messy and doctors and patients face a lot of inconvenience. There will be a rearrangement of beds, wards and furniture on the existing premises,” he said. Leakages will be fixed, as will those parts of the building where wear and tear often causes minor collapses.

The hospital, which has a “ward pavilion design” with vertical ward buildings, will have a dedicated nurse station and a patients’ waiting area on each floor. As of now, relatives of patients crowd the lobbies.

Fire prevention arrangements, water and electricity connections and lifts will be modified. Since the hospital needs a huge quantity of water, there will be a foolproof rainwater harvesting arrangement to meet the demand, Joshi said.

The hospital has 390 staff physicians and 550 resident doctors. Apart from 18 lakh out-patients, it also treats 78,000 in-patients annually.

For those below the poverty line, treatment is free.

Slice of history
The KEM Hospital was built in 1926; its architect, George Wittet, had also designed the Gateway of India. The plans were submitted for approval to W A Pite who had designed the King’s College Hospital in London. Built with Yellow Malad Stone, the structure has Indo-Saracenic design.