Inaugurated in August 2014, 3 civic hospitals yet to be fully operational

NAVI MUMBAI: Three new civic hospitals inaugurated by the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) in Nerul, Belapur and Airoli in August 2014 are yet to become fully operational. Reason: the civic hospitals don’t have adequate staff to tackle the increasing number of patients.

The NMMC is still hiring the required staff, which has led to a delay in making the health services completely available to patients. The hospitals are likely to become fully operational within a month, said officials from the NMMC’s health department.

“The three hospitals need to fill 500 vacancies for them to become fully operational. While the out patient department (OPD) has been functional since November, 2014, the inpatient department (IPD) is yet to become operational as we still don’t have all the medical facilities and staff in place,” said an official from the NMMC’s health department.

The three new civic hospitals were built at a cost of Rs165 crore to provide medical treatment to maximum number of patients. Currently, the corporation also has three fully operational hospitals at Vashi, Kopar Khairane and Turbhe. Of these, Vashi has the largest bed capacity of 300, while the other two have a capacity of 25 beds each.

The NMMC’s health department officials said they have already recruited around 50 to 60 doctors who will be deployed in these new hospitals. The recruitment process for the other staff members is still on. “Once the system is in place, we will start the IPD services in the new civic hospitals, which will help more patients get better treatment,” said a health department official.