Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Tuesday directed the Maharashtra government to implement by September 8 the short-term reforms recommended by an expert committee to upgrade infrastructure and improve healthcare delivery at government medical colleges and hospitals across the state.
The committee was constituted after the High Court took suo motu (on its own) cognisance in 2023 of multiple infant deaths reported from government hospitals in Nanded and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. These deaths were allegedly caused due to a severe shortage of medical staff and critical equipment such as ventilators.
The court has earlier taken note of a report submitted by a five-member expert committee that had visited the affected hospitals and examined their facilities. The report outlines both short-term and long-term measures needed to address the systemic lapses in state-run healthcare institutions.
The committee’s recommendations include immediate steps such as making extra working beds available, ensuring an uninterrupted supply of essential drugs, recruiting doctors and nurses, and providing skill-based training to medical staff.
The court was also told that the committee has emphasised the urgent need to staff high-risk care areas and streamline the drug procurement and delivery system by ensuring full budgetary allocation rather than quarterly disbursements.
The court has asked the state to ensure that all short-term recommendations must be completed by September 8.
The long-term recommendations in the report include the establishment of round-the-clock radiology and laboratory services, strengthening of primary and secondary healthcare networks, creation of maternal and child health wings at the district level, better integration of private hospitals into the referral system, and an overall increase in budgetary allocation for the public health sector. The report also stresses the need to bolster urban healthcare systems to reduce the burden on tertiary hospitals.
