BMC, Seven Hills administration lock horns…….Sandeep Ashar
Mumbai: The civic administration is at loggerheads with the administration of the upcoming Seven Hills hospital at Andheri. The bone of contention: hospital beds for poor patients.
The hospital is being set up on a plot owned by the BMC under a public private partnership (PPP) arrangement. As per the arrangement, a super specialty hospital would operate from the plot. And, a percentage of the beds would be reserved for poor patients.
The civic administration wants the hospital management to reserve beds in all wards for such patients, while the hospital management wants to limit it to the general ward.
Sources said the hospital management is also insisting that as per original terms and conditions, signed between the two parties in 2002, it was expected to entertain only those patients who had been referred to them by the BMC.
A senior health department official admitted that the original terms and conditions did mention this condition, but added that it was a loophole that needed to be plugged.
The two parties are also in disagreement over the medicine rate to be charged to these poor patients. The civic body is keen that they should be charged at subsidised rates, as observed in BMC hospitals, while the hospital management is keen on sticking on to general rates.
The BMC has also insisted that two members from the BMC, the municipalcommissioner and director (medical education and public health), be made members of the hospital’s management.
The hospital is only keen on the representation of one civic official, who will be appointed as an officer on special duty.
Even as a senior civic official insisted the two parties would arrive at an amicable solution, the ruling Shiv Sena in the BMC has decided to get aggressive on the issue.
Yashodhar Phanase, corporator, has demanded that no agreement be inked till the issue is resolved.