`1,500 crore plus budget but MBMC has no paper for hospital printer!

In yet another example illustrating the apathy of the bureaucracy towards health care concerns, the lone printer at the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) run Pandit Bhimsen Joshi Hospital is biting dust due to paper shortage, causing hardships to kin of patients as well cops who escort accused for medical tests. This shocking revelation was made by MBMC’s own health department in reply to a query posed by social activist Rajesh Jawalkar in context to installation of Xerox machines at the hospital.

This after Jawalkar found that kin of patients approaching the civic hospital and the adjoining postmortem centre were inconvenienced due to the lack of this basic facility and had to run from pillar to post to get documents photo-copied especially during the night. But to Jawalkar’s shock, MBMC’s Chief Medical Officer Dr Pramod Padwal stated that for the convenience of patients, printercum-copiers had been installed in the hospital, but were lying idle due to lack of paper and once the store department supplies it the copier will resume dispensing copies. Taking a serious note of the issue, the students wing of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) has threatened to launch an agitation if such basic needs like paper continue to elude the hospital.

“Even cops approach this

Kin of patients and even cops who escort accused for medical tests suffer as printers gather dust due to civic apathy

hospital to conduct medical tests and treatment of victims and accused. It has come to the notice that with no other option cops are forced to take along accused in search of Xerox machines. This can be so dangerous,” says MNS leader Shaan Pawar.

“In case of emergency, we reuse one side printed papers which are discarded,” this admission by a hospital staffer speaks volume about the financial mismanagement of the MBMC which boasts of a budget averaging more than Rs 1,500 crore for three consecutive fiscals.