New age Hospital

A man strapped in a harness slid down the 20 floors of the new age Wockhardt Hospital to cut the inaugural ribbon wrapped around the building. The 350-bed Hospital at Bombay Central, with the first five floors reserved for parking, is the culmination of 19 years of endeavor, since 1995, by the Indian Red Cross Society which had been entrusted with the management of the erstwhile Adams Wylie Memorial Hospital at the same site, mentions Homai Modi, honorary secretary of the Indian Red Cross Society, Maharashtra State Branch and Bombay City Branch.

Wockhardt Hospital at its inauguration

This Hospital, which opened on November 7, 2014, offers the services of some of the top clinicians in various specialties — heart, brain, spine, joints, kidneys, digestive system, oncology and critical care. Experienced doctors perform the least invasive surgery in all specialties. The critical care section that has a fully integrated monitoring system to ensure error free data recording to enable accurate clinical decisions and paperless technology allows nurses to spend more time providing care at the patients’ bedsides, the write-up explains. In an emergency when every second counts, especially in the case of a heart attack, stroke or accident, a dedicated team of Boston trained critical care experts ensures prompt action round the clock.
The original Hospital was established in 1902, during the plague epidemic in Bombay, by Lillian Wylie in memory of her first husband Dr C. D. Adams, an army doctor who had died during the Boer War in South Africa. In 1937 its management passed into the hands of the government appointed official trustee. Later, by a court order dated January 30, 1952, the running of the Hospital was handed over to the Indian Red Cross Society. The official trustee then approached the court seeking permission to hand over all properties, moveable and immoveable along with the funds of the Hospital Trust vested with him, to the Red Cross, which the court sanctioned on November 8, 1993. A function was held on the grounds of the Adams Wylie Hospital on November 18, 1993 at which Maharashtra’s health minister Marzban Patrawala was chief guest, during which the official trustee handed over the property to the Indian Red Cross Society, Modi mentions. Modi herself was master of ceremonies on that occasion, she recalls.
Only two wards existed then, the others having been demolished as per directives of the Bombay Municipal Corporation. One was occupied by the Bombay Leprosy Project and the other by the Cancer Patients’ Aid Association. Both were said to have been given free use of the space on the understanding that they would vacate when asked to do so by the Red Cross. When the decision was taken to build a proper hospital, both the organizations reportedly refused to leave and many years were lost during which legal opinions were sought and negotiations undertaken before a settlement was reached. There were also court cases with the new official trustee who wished to overturn the earlier judgment and resume possession of Adams Wylie Hospital and its properties. Finally, in 2004, a memorandum of understanding was signed with Wockhardt Hospitals to develop the property, Modi reveals.
Today the Red Cross Society has retained possession of an entire floor of the new Hospital along with parking areas, and is considering how best to utilize the space to treat free patients in accordance with Lillian Wylie’s trust deed. The Society has also arranged for 10 free beds to be reserved at Wockhardt Hospital for treating poor patients recommended by the Red Cross, the write-up concludes.