Mumbai civic body to hire 600 new staff to strengthen periphery hospitals

The move will decrease the burden on tertiary care hospitals

In a move to strengthen periphery hospitals of the city, the civic body recently decided to recruit 600 blood bank employees, paramedical staff and administrative officers. Officials said the initial sanctions for one of the largest hiring sprees, costing over Rs40 crore per year, has been approved. This will decrease the burden on tertiary care hospitals, which act as referral centres due to lack of manpower or resources at periphery hospitals.

Majority of the new recruits will be deployed in the departments of radiology, pathology, microbiology and blood transfusion, which have the highest amount of patient footfall in terms of timely diagnosis and report sharing. (REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE/SHUTTERSTOCK)

“Many times, it happens that the periphery hospitals have the machinery to conduct CT or MRI scans but they lie underutilised due to lack of manpower. The patients, once scans are done, are referred to tertiary care centres like KEM, Sion, Nair and Cooper Hospital for further diagnosis,” said a senior doctor from one of the tertiary care hospitals.

Majority of the new recruits will be deployed in the departments of radiology, pathology, microbiology and blood transfusion, which have the highest amount of patient footfall in terms of timely diagnosis and report sharing. The 10 peripheral hospitals, selected for the upgrade on the basis of patient load, will also hire 126 additional operation theater attendants and 124 assistants, to provide essential back up for the doctors performing critical surgeries.

“We have procured about 230 ventilator beds, which are going to be distributed among 25 periphery and major hospitals so that we increase hospitals’ capacity to handle emergencies. While creating new services, we are making sure no two similar services come up in hospitals that are close by so that they are evenly distributed across the city,” said Idzes Kundan, additional municipal commissioner (health).

Officials added that the total cost of upgrading the manpower of the hospitals has come up to Rs46,04,35,596 and initial approvals have been granted from the top officials. “Once the process of approvals is over, we will immediately start hiring process. Our core motto has been to decrease the load of tertiary care hospitals and to lessen the time between symptom and treatment for people who travel long distances by upgrading medical services close to Mumbaikar’s homes,” Kundan added.