The Hindu Business Line : NGO slams public health system in Mumbai

Major casualties of the decline and neglect of public health system are the masses, Lokshahi Hakk Sanghatana, a democratic rights organisation, said in its report, `Creeping Privatisation in Public Hospitals in Mumbai — Private Profit, People's Loss.'

According to the report, public hospitals come forward and administer care during times of social strife such as natural calamities, riots and outbreak of diseases, while private hospitals do not.

But resource starvation in the long term would also impact the medical education systems. Currently, medical students prefer State-run colleges on account of the affordable fee structure. Besides, the quality of education and hospital medical facilities are far superior.

The report said that the need for new public hospitals is being ignored despite evidence to the contrary. Quoting a Centre for Enquiry into Health and Allied Themes (CEHAT) study, the report said that a survey done in Jogeshwari had concluded that there was a need for such a hospital in that suburb. However, the civic authorities ignored the survey done at their request and did not set up any hospital there.

BrihanMumbai Muncipal Corporation (BMC), the civic administrator of Mumbai, has put in place a privatisation initiative cell to encourage private investment in various areas, including municipal health facilities. BMC, the report said, has modernised and upgraded six health facilities in Mumbai through private participation.

"All future development and expansion of the municipal health network is fully dependent upon private participation," the report said, indicating that in the absence of private funds, no expansion would take place.

According to the report, privatisation of health facilities has been taking place in many ways — hospitals, services such as blood banks, dialysis centres and intensive coronary care units (ICCUs) have been handed over to NGOs or private entrepreneurs.

Patients are being directed to buy medicines from commercial chemists and they are being asked to pay for laboratory investigations. Patient kitchens have been closed in 30 BMC maternity homes and in most peripheral hospitals.

The privatisation policy of public health care is directly opposed to public interest, the report said. "State funding of public health needs to be augmented drastically and not reduced," it added.

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