Bhayandar: In a belated but much-needed move, the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) has finally rolled up its sleeves to ensure the poor are not deprived of free medical facilities at hospitals, which have extracted government privileges in the form of additional floor space index (FSI) and concessions for construction on land tagged with reservations.
The decision of taking steps to ensure compliance of mandated guidelines followed when the BJP corporator, Dr Sushil Agarwal, raised the issue in the general body meeting on Wednesday. “Despite getting benefits, hospitals, mandated to offer free services, have been turning away the EWS and BPL patients. Moreover, the beneficiary managements are also shying away from installing display boards depicting free bed status in hospitals,” alleged Dr Agarwal.
It was also suggested the hospitals must be scrutinised to verify patients’ records. After long discussions and ruckus, the civic chief, Balaji Khatgaokar, assured the House of convening a meeting of the Mayor, officer-bearers, representatives of the concerned institutions and the health officials to treat eligible patients, recommended by the civic body, for free at the designated hospitals.
There are two MBMC-run hospitals in the twin-city. However, they both lack even basic and emergency facilities, prompting onduty medicos to refer the patients to the government hospitals in Mumbai, despite having referral options in the form of reservations at beneficiary hospitals in the region.
