BMC to rope in 50 docs from Marathwada
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will rope in 50 doctors from the green zone in Marathwada to help with the healthcare emergency in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak. The total number of Covid-positive patients in Mumbai shot up to 28,817 on Saturday with 1,566 new cases and 40 deaths from Covid-19.
In a recently-held meeting between BMC officials and the state health department, it was decided that doctors from Latur and Beed districts (in the green zone of Marathwada), who are willing to help Mumbai’s public health care system, will be inducted into BMC’S medical staff. Dr Tatyarao Lahane, director of Directorate of Medical
Education and Research (DMER), is co-ordinating with different medical colleges and research centres to this end.
Last week, a team of 45 doctors from Wardha’s Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences were deployed at Seven Hills Hospital in Marol.
Lahane confirmed the development. “We are taking all necessary steps to avoid any shortage of medical staff in Mumbai. Considering the outbreak in the city, we have decided to bring doctors from different districts of the state. Not only from Marathawada, but we are trying to rope in doctors from all green zones. Discussions with many hospitals and medical research centres in green zones are going on,” he said. He also said efforts were underway to bring in doctors with private practices who are less than 45 years old.
Additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani said that with the help of DMER, BMC would deploy doctors brought from other districts at jumbo care facilities like the one at the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) facility at Bandra Kurla Complex. “Considering the manpower requirement, these doctors from others districts and local Covid warriors will be used at jumbo Covid care centres,” he said.
Additional municipal commissioner Ashwini Bhide, who supervises assistance to various hospitals, said BMC has 32,000 quarantine beds for high-risk people. For asymptomatic patients, 30,000 beds have been kept ready. “Together, we have around 62,000 beds, which are enough because a large number of people are discharged on a daily basis,” Bhide said.
Following guidelines issued by the civic commissioner under the Epidemic Diseases Act, BMC has also taken over more than 4,000 beds from private hospitals and 2,000 more beds at the ward level.
On Saturday, BMC confirmed that of the 2,423 Indians who have returned to the city from foreign locations, 1,128 have been quarantined at 43 hotels in Mumbai.
The civic body has reserved 3,343 rooms in 88 hotels to keep the passengers returning to India as part of Mission Vande Bharat. Fifteen teams of 50 civic officers have been set up to follow up with the passengers and prevent further spread of the disease.