The hospitals in Mukundapur, off EM Bypass, were inundated because of the heavy rain. Many doctors could not report to work, many patients failed to turn up and several surgeries got cancelled.
Several patients who were to be discharged could not go home because their family members failed to reach the hospitals.
The RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences and AMRI Hospitals Mukundapur were the worst affected.
Every time there is a downpour, the approach roads to both these hospitals are flooded. But this time the rainfall was much more than usual and officials of both hospitals said their premises were also waterlogged till Tuesday night.
“Every time when there is heavy rain, the approach road is waterlogged. This time there was water on the campus. There was so much water outside that we were unable to pump out water from the campus,” said R. Venkatesh, regional director, east, Narayana Health, which runs the Mukundapur hospital. Venkatesh said barely 500 people turned up at the outpatients department, compared with the usual count of 1,200.
Senior consultant cardiologist Binayak De said he could not go to the hospital on a working day for the first time in 15 years.
“I had left home for the hospital but then realised I would not be able to make it because of waterlogging,” he said.
At AMRI Mukundapur, too, the OPD footfall was less than 50 per cent. “Many doctors could not come,” said Rupak Barua, the group CEO of AMRI.
“There was more than usual waterlogging. I could not risk driving to the hospital,” said consultant gastroenterologist Debottam Bandyopadhyay.