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8 civic hospitals, including those named after Thackerays, lying wasted in Pune
18 hospitals, all owned and run by the Pune Municipal Corporation, are understaffed. However, eight in particular, one less than two-year-old, are simply going to waste
PUNE The Pune Municipal Corporation owns and runs 18 hospitals. However, all are underutilised and only the OPDs (out-patient department) are operational in eight hospitals, including the late Balasaheb Thackeray hospital and the Bindumadhav Thackeray hospital.
Deputy Mayor Dr Siddharth Dhende admits, “It is true that many PMC hospitals and medical equipment therein is lying idle. The main problem with the PMC hospitals is that the PMC is erecting the infrastructure, but does not have the specialised manpower.”
He pointed out that the PMC does not have a single superspecialist doctor on its payroll and, is therefore running only OPDs and maternity homes.
Despite knowing that the PMC is not in a position to run these hospitals, it is continuing to procure medical equipment which is not used, Dhende alleges.
Dhende cites the operations of the Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital in Pimpri as an example of meeting the manpower demand.
The hospital runs a master’s course for MBBS specialisation.
“If a post graduate course is started, the PMC will get doctors who will practice in PMC-owned hospitals. However, the administration and elected members want to start an MBBS college,” he claims.
Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray had inaugurated the Balasaheb Thackeray hospital at Mitramandal chowk in 2016, but since its inauguration it is not yet operational. Only the OPD is operational on the ground floor. It is the same with the Bindumadhav Thackeray hospital in Kothrud.
Chief of the PMC health department Ramchandra Hankare, says , “We have floated a tender for appointing agencies to start both the Thackeray hospitals and very soon they will be operational. It is true that the PMC is facing manpower shortage which is creating a difficulty to run all these hospitals.”
The civic health department has also been facing an acute staff shortage.
“We have been working in all the hospitals with just a handfull of staff. The PMC health department which has a staff of 1,200, is in need of 700 more people besides 100 doctors,” says a senior official on condition of anonymity. “It is because of this staff shortage that hospitals are lying idle and only working on an OPD basis,” the official adds.
Ashok Harnawal, Shiv Sena leader in the PMC who took the lead to erect the Balasaheb Thackeray hospital, says, “I was defeated in the 2017 municipal election. After that no elected member was interested in completing the hospital work. The PMC had planned to start a dialysis centre in this hospital, but that work, too, has not been completed. It is sad that neither the elected members nor the administration wants to get these hospitals started.”
OPDs on ground floor allow stories of wastage and classrooms for deaf above
The late Balasaheb Thackeray Hospital at Mitramandal chowk, Swargate, and the Bindumadhav Thackeray hospital in Karvenagar, both boast imposing exterior structures.
An HT field visit on Wednesday, confirmed that both hospitals only operate for out patients.
The Balasaheb Thackeray hospital is three-storied and at 2.30 pm on Wednesday, had at least 20 patients on the ground floor OPD department. The ground floor is the only floor operational.
The remaining two floors are closed. Personnel at the hospital, on condition of anonymity, informed HT that the civic body plans to open an eye hospital on the upper stories.
There is no emergency ward operational at the hospital.
Patient Anuradha Jagtap, 45, claims, “The hospital OPD closes at 5pm. During an emergency we have to go to a private hospital, as Sassoon hospital is far away for us.”
A doctor in charge of the OPD, also on the condition of anonymity, refuted all allegations on the under-utilisation of hospital. She said. “As a result of construction of an eye hospital all floors are closed, but we are serving patients through our OPD from 9am to 5pm.”
The same situation prevailed at the six-storied Bindumadhav Thackeray hospital in Karvenagar. A special school ‘Swanad’, for deaf children is run on the upper floors of the hospital building.
Dr Vaishali Talape, in charge of the hospital, said, “Hospital is working and we see 50-60 patients on a daily basis.”
She refused to comment on the upper floors being used as a school.
When HT visited the second, third, fourth and fifth floor of the hospital, classrooms with sketches of fruits, flowers, animals adorned the walls with blackboards noticeable in one section of the rooms.
Dr Avinash Wachasunder heads the Swanad school and says it is running in association with the Pune Municipal Corporation. PMC seemed to not have any idea about a school in the hospital building. Deputy mayor Siddharth Dhende said, “I do not have any idea about such a school. Let me check and will revert you.”
