Pune Municipal Corporation’s medical schemes cost the civic body Rs 100 cr a year

Civic body pays 50 per cent of urban poor’s medical bills at private hospitals in city

On the one hand, eight of Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) hospitals are lying underutilised, while on the other, the civic body is spending crores of rupees on health reimbursement scheme it is running for its staff, the public representatives and for the “urban poor”.

Fifty private hospitals in the city, like this one in Bibvewadi, are on the list as part of the PMC reimbursement scheme, (Ravindra Joshi/HT PHOTO)

According to administration records, PMC has paid Rs 100.25 crore to various private hospitals in the city, under its health schemes, in the past year.

A major chunk of the money, according to officials, goes in the scheme for the urban poor, and for the PMC employees.

The civic body owns and runs 18 hospitals in Pune of which, eight only operate OPDs (out-patient department), including the late Balasaheb Thackeray hospital and the Bindumadhav Thackeray hospital.

Ramchandra Hankare, head, PMC health department said, “It is true that the financial burden is increasing on PMC for these health schemes. There are various reasons for it which it includes the hospitals increased the treatment rates, increase in population and awareness about the scheme.”

As the budget is increasing, the standing committee of the PMC allotted Rs 25 crore to the urban poor health scheme on Tuesday.

Standing committee chairman Hemant Rasne cited “good demand from the citizens”, as the reason for the Rs 25 crore approval.

Former PMC corporator Nilesh Nikam, who was instrumental in introducing the urban poor scheme, said that the objective behind it was to benefit the poor and in times of crises, to enable access to private hospitals.

“PMC introduced the scheme and selected 50 private hospitals in the city where the PMC would bear 50 per cent of treatment costs,” said Nikam.

With more people availing of the scheme, PMC’s budget allotment has been increasing by the year.

Nikam admits that there is a certain percentage of people who are comparatively well off and misusing the scheme. “About 80 per cent of people are genuine beneficiaries,” said Nikam.

Civic activist Vijay Kumbar, on Wednesday, wrote a letter to Saurabh Rao, Pune Municipal commissioner, asking for the list of beneficiaries of the urban scheme to be published on the PMC website.

“There is no harm in publishing the list to bring more transparency. PMC doesn’t need to publish the treatment availed, only the names,” he said.