Mumbai News: BMC-Run Hospitals To Take Tips From Pvt Counterparts

Mumbai: People often complain about lack of facilities and rude behaviour of medical staff at the civic-run hospitals. To change that perception, the BMC has now asked the higher authorities of all the civic-run hospitals to visit private hospitals and understand their working culture for improving services at municipal institutions.

The move comes after Additional Municipal Commissioner Dr Sudhakar Shinde paid a surprise visit to hospitals where he found many loopholes. A senior health official said that the decision to 'learn' from private hospitals might bring some change at the BMC-run facilities as there have been many complaints from patients and their relatives.

Aim to change perspective of BMC hospitals

“The main aim of this measure is to benefit patients and change their thinking towards the BMC hospitals. Many times, it has been noticed that patients and their relatives complained about the unhygienic condition of hospitals, rude behaviour of medical staff and bad infrastructure, which need to be improved,” said a senior health official.

Several critical issues to be addressed

After assuming charge, Dr Shinde has stressed upon the need to address the shortcomings of hospital administrations. During his surprise inspection, he raised several crucial issues such as uncleanliness, bad infrastructure and shortage of medicines. “We all have been given instructions to visit private hospitals to understand their working style which will benefit patients coming to the BMC hospitals. Also, there is no need to construct new hospitals as it will involve too much additional work such as finding land, staff and machines, which will be time-consuming,” said an official.

Recently, the civic health department had undertaken a rat killing drive to cull rodents from hospital premises as they are responsible for unhygienic conditions.

BMC's take on the matter

'The main aim of this measure is to benefit patients and change their thinking towards the BMC hospitals. Many times, it has been noticed that patients and their relatives complained about the unhygienic condition of hospitals, rude behaviour of medical staff and bad infrastructure.

We all have been given instructions to visit private hospitals to understand their working style which will benefit patients coming to the BMC hospitals. Also, there is no need to construct new hospitals as there is scope to improve the existing ones.'