1,100 nursing homes in Mumbai illegal from April 1……Kiran Tare
Mumbai: Legally speaking, 1,100 of the citys 1,500-odd nursing homes will become unauthorised from Thursday. But the civic authorities will turn a blind eye to the Maharashtra governments plans to persuade the Supreme Court to extend the deadline. The apex court had ruled that by March 31, if nursing homes housed in residential buildings do not have independent access, they should be shut down. The judgment, if implemented in letter and spirit, would mean the collapse of the healthcare system in Mumbai.
Nearly six months after the SC set the deadline, the government prodded by medical associations has woken up to the fact that if slums can be regularised, so can nursing homes. All it requires is amending the Development Control (DC) rules.
The issue was brought to the notice of the government on Tuesday by Shiv Sena MLC Deepak Sawant in the state legislative council in the ongoing budget session of the legislature. The BMC cannot allow such nursing homes to construct independent entrance unless the DC Rules is amended. The state government, and not the BMC, has the right to amend the DCR, Sawant said.
He added: After March 31, these nursing homes will have two options either close down or function illegally. If they function illegally, the BMC will have to take action against them. Patients in these nursing homes, most of which are maternity homes, are from the middle class. They cannot afford private hospitals and feel it is beneath them to go to the run-down government hospitals.
Replying to the discussion, deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal told the legislative council that the government will file an affidavit in the SC and seek an extension to the deadline given to these nursing homes. The game plan seems to be to amend the DC Rules to regularise the nursing homes if and when the extension is granted.
Dr Ashok Rane, a general practitioner from Mulund, is skeptical if that would help. He said, Property rates are sky high in Mumbai. And the city has huge space constraints. So creating a new staircase in a nursing home that is over 20 years old is a next-to-impossible task.