‘Infectious diseases hosp plan out; focus on infra in peripheral units’
MUMBAI: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has shelved its plan to construct a 5,000-bed multi-speciality hospital for infectious diseases in Mumbai. Instead, the civic body has decided to turn its focus on developing infrastructure at peripheral hospitals.
At present, civic-run Kasturba Hospital has 125 beds dedicated for treatment of infectious diseases. Following the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, BMC in July last year had taken a decision to develop a hospital on a 22-acre plot in either Mulund (East) or Dahisar, so as to make it accessible for patients from Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).
Six months on, the civic body has decided to concentrate on developing 16 peripheral hospitals, and add 100 dedicated infectious beds at Kasturba Hospital, for which financial allocation will be set aside in the budget. “Huge amount of funds are needed to establish such a (multi-speciality) hospital. At present, due to the pandemic, we are already facing a fund crunch. Therefore, we have decided to develop and better existing infrastructure at peripheral hospitals,” said a senior officer from BMC.
Additional municipal commissioner, P Velrasu said, “There hasn’t been any development in acquiring land for the hospital.”
The decision to develop a multi-speciality hospital was taken as a preparatory measure if the city faces another outbreak of a Covid-19 like pandemic in the future. During the initial months following the outbreak of the pandemic in March, Mumbai had faced severe shortages of beds for treatment of infected patients.
Health activists have suggested the civic body allocate more money in the health sector. “Mumbai has a population of around 2 crore. The civic body should take a lesson from this pandemic and be ready to handle similar health emergencies in the future. Peripheral hospitals constitute an essential point of health service. These hospitals should have their own units for infectious diseases,” said Dr Abhijit More, health activist.