BMC to outsource ICU hosp beds to private medical staff

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday sanctioned a proposal in the standing committee to outsource services of a private medical staff for nearly 150 intensive care unit beds in 12 hospitals located in the suburbs. The outsourcing of the medical staff will be done to the tune of Rs 23 crore.

Around 150 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds of 12 hospitals, including Rajawadi hospital (Ghatkopar), Bhagwati hospital (Borivali), Bhaba hospital (Kurla) and MT Agarwal (Mulund), will have private medical staff.

Members of the standing committee slammed the BMC administration accusing them of stepping towards privatisation of civic hospitals.

Four proposals for 200 ICU beds were presented in the Standing Committee. The opposition parties managed to reject one proposal which allowed outsourcing of medical staff of 52 ICU beds worth Rs 8 crore.

Ravi Raja, Leader of the Opposition party, said, “The health budget is nearly Rs 3000 crore. And despite increasing it the administration has been unable to improve the infrastructure and get better medical staff of our hospitals.”

“This clearly states the inefficiency of the BMC officials to give basic civic facilities. We discussed the proposal for more than an hour and decided to not outsource the work, however, the Shiv Sena passed the proposal without even considering our points,” Raja added.

Given the acute shortage of medical staff in BMC hospitals, the administration has decided to outsource services of the medical staff for its patients in the ICU.

This also means that there will be no cost hike in the treatment costs for the patients since the treatment is given in the civic body-run hospitals.

Members of the committee have repeatedly raised issues related to shortage of hospital staff and vacant posts of senior doctors which takes a toll on the treatment of patients.

Around 150 Intensive Care Unit beds of 12 hospitals will have private medical staff.