In a belated but much-needed step, the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) has finally geared up to strengthen and upgrade its healthcare care infrastructure to provide quality treatment at par with the private hospitals in the twin-city.
After the state government authorities took over the reins of the Bharat Ratna Late Pandit Bhimsen Joshi (Tembha) Civic Hospital in Bhayandar, the MBMC is left behind with Bharat Ratna Indira Gandhi Hospital in Mira Road and ten public health centres (PHC) across the twin-city.
While the hospital caters to maternity cases and minor health issues, the services of PHCs are largely limited to the dispensation of primary healthcare and the implementation of various government schemes like immunization drives. Due to a lack of manpower and infrastructure, the PHCs fail to provide essential healthcare to the patients who largely represent the lower economic strata of the society. As per the plan chalked out by MBMC’s health department, the bed strength of the hospital in Mira Road will be increased from 50 to 150, apart from introducing multi-speciality services on the fourth floor which will house facilities including- well-equipped operation theatres, intensive care units, neonatal intensive care unit and a dedicated emergency team to tackle complicated deliveries.
“Apart from upgrading facilities at the Mira Road hospital, our thrust is upon increasing and elevating the standards of PHC which are important entry points into the healthcare system. The plan will be implemented in a phase-wise manner,” said civic chief- Dilip Dhole.
“We are identifying suitable reserved plots for constructing PHCs, following which a proposal will be sent to the mission authorities for further action,” said deputy civic chief-Sanjay Shinde. As per National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) norms, which mandate one PHC for a population of 50,000, the twin-city needs 10 more centres. Moreover, only 4 out of the ten existing PHCs qualify for NUHM norms.
