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BMC痴 healthcare proposal for locals comes under fire
Mumbai: The BMC administration痴 proposal to give local patients p re f e re n c e over 双utsiders� (those from other cities and states) in its hospitals has invited criticism from various quarters.
The Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, a group of health activists, will soon submit a letter to municipal chief Jairaj Phatak, protesting against the move, even as senior doctors question how could there be any discrimination in matters of life and death other than the criticality of the patient.
典he move is outright discriminatory. Every citizen has a basic right to public health services and the administration can稚 make a distinction based on geographical boundaries,鋳 said Padma Deosthali of the voluntary organisation, CEHAT (Centre for Enquiry into Health and Allied Themes).
Civic chief Phatak on Thursday said they would conduct a survey on patients coming to their hospitals, but Deosthali said it would help more if they conducted an audit of their services, identified the human resource crunch and the basic lack of infrastructure so that they could make budgetary allocations accordingly.
Stating a 租iscriminatory system� would be completely unjustified, Dr Arun Bal of ACASH (Association of Consumer Action on Safety and Health) said so-called outsiders
flock to Mumbai only because they don稚 have adequate facilities in their hometowns. 的t痴 not like patients enjoy travelling away from their homes for treatment. But they池e forced to do so as they don稚 have basic facilities in their towns and districts鋳 Bal says. Old-timers, too, don稚 favour the proposal. 展hile I agree that taxes are paid by Mumbaikars, for services offered in public hospitals at practically no charge, healthcare is a question of life and death and I don稚 think we can deny treatment to anyone,鋳 said former dean of Sion Hospital Dr Snehalata Deshmukh. Besides, she questions the practicality of the proposal.
展ho痴 going to scrutinise documents of patients? The average wait in public hospitals is about 45 minutes for case papers, followed by a queue for the doctors� check-up and another queue for pathological tests. This new plan would involve adding one more queue for the patients,鋳 Deshmukh said. She, however, said a well-thought out scheme for costing could be worked out.
City activists plan to fight the move tooth and nail. 典hey致e already taken away land and denied water to a whole section of the population, and now they want to take away healthcare too,鋳 said Simpreet Singh of the NAPM (National Alliance for People痴 Movement), which works closely with displaced persons.
的t痴 a blatant violation of the constitution, which doesn稚 allow discrimination on the basis of caste, creed, religion or geographical boundaries.鋳 Singh said they would move court if the BMC went ahead with its plan.
THE PLAN * The civic administration feels its healthcare services are stretched and so has mooted a proposal whereby people from the state will be given preference in medical services * The corporation is conducting a survey on patients using their services
Jairaj Phatak
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