BMC Announces Mega Contract Recruitment At Cooper Hospital After Doctors Flag Acute Staff Crisis

Mumbai: The Hinduhṛdayasamrat Balasaheb Thackeray (HBT) Medical College and Dr. Rustom Narsi Cooper Hospital in Juhu—long criticised for staff shortages and its dependence on contractual workers—has announced a mega recruitment drive to fill vacancies across multiple categories. However, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has clarified that all appointments will be purely temporary and on a contractual basis.

Doctors Raised Alarm Earlier

The recruitment move comes months after doctors from HBT Medical College and RN Cooper Hospital, in September last year, wrote to the then dean flagging an acute manpower crisis that they said was crippling patient care and crowd management. In the letter, doctors warned that unless urgent corrective steps were taken, essential medical services could face serious disruption.

According to the doctors, the hospital has been facing a severe shortage of Medical Officers (MOs), Assistant Medical Officers (AMOs), registration assistants, X-ray technicians, dressers, ambulance attendants, pharmacists, and other support staff. The situation has worsened as the contractual tenure of several employees has ended, with no extension orders or fresh appointments issued in time.

Doctors’ Statement

“As a result, the smooth functioning of hospital services is severely affected. Patient management is being delayed, crowd control has become difficult, and the existing limited staff are overburdened. If this issue is not addressed urgently, it may lead to a breakdown of essential medical services,” the doctors stated in their letter.

As per approval granted by the Municipal Commissioner, the contractual appointments under the current recruitment drive will be valid up to March 31, 2027, subject to administrative requirements and performance review. The recruitment process will involve scrutiny of educational qualifications followed by interviews, after which a merit list will be prepared.

89-Day Appointment Rule

BMC has specified that appointments will be made for a maximum period of 89 days at a time, with extensions dependent on satisfactory performance. Contractual employees will receive a fixed consolidated remuneration and will not be entitled to benefits such as dearness allowance, house rent allowance, or other perks available to permanent staff.

The civic body aims to fill 145 posts across 39 departments. Apart from Medical Officers and Assistant Medical Officers, the recruitment includes positions such as laboratory technicians, assistant lab technicians, ECG technician, X-ray assistant, part-time refractionist, aayahs, cleaning staff, and other support roles.

Selected candidates may be required to work in rotational shifts across departments based on hospital needs. BMC has also reserved the right to modify or cancel the recruitment process at any stage due to administrative reasons.

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