100-bed Pune hospital lying unused after spat between civic body, partner
Situated at Bopodi, off the old Pune-Mumbai highway, PMC’s Draupadabai Murlidhar Khedekar General Hospital and Trauma Care Centre was run by Sahyadri Hospitals, since 2008, under a public-private partnership (PPP) agreement for 10 years.
A four-storeyed, 100-bed hospital at Bopodi, that was running under a public-private partnership agreement between the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and Sahyadri Hospitals has been lying idle since December 2017 as the hospital decided not to renew the agreement.
Situated at Bopodi, off the old Pune-Mumbai highway, PMC’s Draupadabai Murlidhar Khedekar General Hospital and Trauma Care Centre was run by Sahyadri Hospitals, since 2008, under a public-private partnership (PPP) agreement for 10 years.
While Dr Charudutta Apte, chairman and managing director, Sahyadri Hospitals, has blamed harassment and political interference from ward-level politicians, ‘gundagardi’ (bullying) and violence during the hospital’s ten year agreement, the former MNS and now BJP corporator Prakash (Bandu) Dhore alleged that the hospital exploited the poor. “We will not allow any private hospital to work at the PMC built facility now. We have seen how private hospitals work and basically it is a loot. They charge exorbitantly and time and again we have supported poor patients,” he said.
Dhore said it was he who had demanded that the contract with Sahayadri not be renewed by the PMC “in view of their poor services in Bopodi.” He said that they want the hospital to be run by the PMC itself and not by any private enterprise under PPP model. “We are hoping that the PMC arranges staff and health care facility accordingly for the Bopodi based hospital within a month,” he said.
A visit to the hospital revealed that while most of its rooms were locked, it saw just five to six admissions a month, that of patients coming in for deliveries.
“We ourselves never wanted to renew the contract as we have had a horrific experience working with PMC on the PPP model. I would advise hospitals not to work with PMC in PPP ever,” Dr Apte said when asked about the failed venture.
According to him, the extreme level of ‘gundagardi’ (bullying), violence and vandalism of hospital property was taken up with the PMC repeatedly, but there was no relief. “Hence we chose to opt out and not to renew our contract with them. It was a horrendous experience where we also faced huge losses in terms of business,” he said.
While Dr Apte declined to elaborate on what exactly happened, he was quoted in a DNA report of January 1, 2009, complaining bitterly about the harassment from Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and its local corporator Prakash (Bandu) Dhore, now with the BJP. In that report, Dr. Apte had said that “he won’t be intimidated by the threats from the MNS” who demanded employment for people from Bopodi. He had then pointed out that 13 of the 19 people at the hospital were from Bopodi and besides, there were 117 others at the main Sahyadri hospital on Karve Road. In January 2009, the police had provided protection from the MNS to the staff for three days.
Sahyadri Hospitals decided not to work with us: PMC
When asked about the defunct state of the hospital, Dr Sanjay Wavre, assistant health officer, Pune Municipal Corporation said, “The Bopodi based hospital was rented out to Sahyadri Hospitals 10 years ago. Since their contract came to an end they chose not to work with us again. Since then the property has been lying idle and without any proper facilities. So far we are conducting OPD and obstetrics and gynaecology services at the hospital.”
He said the PMC was keen that the agreement be renewed by Sahyadri Hospitals, but “they were not very keen on working with us.”
He said while there are no plans to roll out a new tender for leasing out the property, it is currently lying defunct with minimal services.
Wavre said the PPP model was introduced to gain from the medical staff with private hospitals and provide healthcare facilities at reasonable rates for the poor.
