Former corporators of the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee (MRCC) have alleged that the hospitals where the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is slated to implement the zero prescription policy, which will supposedly provide relief to Mumbaikars, are lying in a dormant state.
Former Congress corporators including Ashraf Azmi, Sufiyan Vanu, Mohsin Haider, Asif Zakaria, Virendra Chaudhary, Sheetal Mhatre, and Ajanta Yadav among other former Congress corporators held a joint press conference on Tuesday to highlight the plight of BMC hospitals.
The former corporators said the tendering process of basic amenities in hospitals such as medical supplies, life-saving medicines, milk and food supplies, is pending for the last one year due to negligence and laxity of the administration.
The former BMC corporators also said lakhs of Mumbaikars are being affected due to the collapsing health infrastructure of the city.
For the last one year, no drug has been scheduled through the central procurement authority. In order to keep the hospital functional, the dean and medical officers have to buy the essential medicines for patients at higher rates from the open market daily. Moreover, every hospital is purchasing milk and food supplies at different rates and conditions.
Congress has also blamed the hospitals for lack of medical equipment, which is delaying the treatment of several patients.
In 2018, the municipality had undertaken the renovation of MT Agarwal Hospital, Shatabdi Hospital in Govandi, Bhagwati Hospital in Borivali. Even after five years, none of these hospitals have been renovated. This year, the administrators approved the purchase of life-saving endoscopic ultrasound medical equipment for KEM Hospital in Parel. However, the tender holder who gave the proposal decided to cancel the tender. The same has been observed in the supply of life-saving injections as well. Many such genuine problems concerning citizens are neglected by the BMC.
Congress demanded strict action against the officials who are cancelling contracts for corrupt practices even after the approval of BMC administrator. All officials who do not finalise the tenders should be sacked immediately, it said.
Notably, BMC had floated a tender for supply of medicines to municipal hospitals, but only a couple of suppliers have responded. Most of the companies turned their backs on the tender process since BMC did not clear 20% of the money of the medicine owed to the vendors. Corporators also asked why the BMC is not paying the companies despite having funds of thousands of crores of rupees.
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