BMC healthcare: Anti-malaria drive the only silver lining in black cloud

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Ananya Banerjee: Mumbai, Jan 25 2012, 02:54 IST

Even as the Shiv Sena’s 2007 manifesto promised that all Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) hospitals would be equipped with latest technology to provide quality healthcare by 2012, the current condition of the civic hospitals, particularly the 16 peripheral hospitals of the city, is a clear indication of a promise unfulfilled. The healthcare budget increased to Rs 2,183.10 crore in 2011-2012 from Rs 752.87 crore in 2007-2008.

However, frequent staff strikes and protests, hospital deaths and controversies have plagued the BMC’s healthcare department for the last five years.

Incomplete projects

The KEM redevelopment plan, building of the trauma centre at Ajgaonkar and the Shatabdi renovation have found a constant mention in the BMC manifestos every year since 2007. A budget of Rs 692.66 crore was allocated in 2007-08 for the redevelopment of KEM Hospital, which included five quarters, student hostel building and staff quarters. In the same year, Rs 24 crore was allocated to redevelop the Shatabdi Hospital in Kandivali and convert it into a 120 bedded super specialty hospital. In 2010, Rs 40 crore was proposed for the development of the Ajgaonkar plot in Jogeshwari to construct a 266 bed trauma hospital.

While work at KEM has mostly been smooth and might meet its deadline of 2012, the Ajgaonkar project met with technical glitches in 2010, due to which the project plan had to be changed. Shatabdi Hospital inaugurated its OPD department last year, but the other phases of the hospital are far from completion. “These are ongoing projects and work is underway. They

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