Civic body to extend health services in Bhandup

At present,18 peripheral municipal hospitals form the healthcare infrastructure available in the eastern and western suburbs of the city,though a majority of the 1.2-crore population lives here. As many as four tertiary-level hospitals have been planned to set up on a 70,000-sqm plot in Andheri (east) through a public-private partnership with Seven Hills hospital group. However,since 2011,a year after inaugurating the multi-speciality centre,the project has been embroiled in a court battle,as the BMC alleged the private partner had failed to reserve 20 per cent of its beds for poor patients referred to by municipal hospitals.

The concept,initiated by the corporation this year,has been based on the model of the JJ Group of Hospitals. “We are only inviting tenders from experts in hospital architecture to design and construct the structures. The hospitals will be managed by us. Our resident doctors from colleges associated with the three main civic hospitals will be appointed at its branches. Another hospital in the Nair group of hospitals is also in the pipeline,” Mhaiskar said.

alison.saldanha@expressindia.com