The hospitals run on Public Private Partnership basis, will have to offer consultation, dialysis and other services at municipal rates
The hospitals running on PPP basis will have to provide everything at municipal rates.
The BMC’s group leaders’ committee on Friday cleared a policy that will provide for cheaper healthcare in hospitals run on Public Private Partnership (PPP) basis. The policy has mandated consultation, dialysis and other services at hospitals like Malad’s Surana Hospital and Byculla’s Balaji Hospital at municipal rates. This is a big step towards affordable healthcare for the city.
The hospitals running on PPP basis will have to provide everything at municipal rates. Pic/Sneha Kharabe
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The BMC, in 2004 entered into agreements, with several private healthcare organisations under a PPP model. In most cases, they were given municipal maternity homes to operate. The rules were clear: the private party would pay a nominal rent of Re 1 but it would have to pay property tax, water, electricity bills etc. Also, they were not allowed to make any other use of the structure apart from the stipulated one. No additions/alterations to the structure were allowed. But the BMC soon started noticing violations of these terms and sent show-cause notices to several of them.
mid-day had reported on March 28 how a private trust running a hospital, which also used to run a geriatric care centre at Girgaum, had not paid dues worth Rs 2 crore, (Care centre shut in 2015, but still owes BMC rs 2 cr). The centre was shut down last year and is with the BMC. Many such parties owe the BMC upto Rs 3 crore in total.
After the notices were sent, several parties moved court which directed the BMC to come up with a policy for such cases. The civic group leaders’ committee passed this policy on Friday.
New policy
According to the new policy, the lease of PPP partners who have violated the terms and conditions of the lease/caretaker agreement shall be terminated and fresh bids will be called. Every other case where the lease is over, the BMC will obviously take back the structures and invite bids for them.
After the new contracts are handed out, the hospitals will have to charge all their patients as per municipal rates. For eg, the cost of dialysis in a municipal hospital is Rs 350 while its cost in a private facility can be upto Rs 1,000-1,200. Now, those parties running hospitals on PPP basis will have to provide everything as per BMC rates. Also, they will have to reserve 40% beds for the original stipulated use, which is maternity and pediatrics. The rest can be used for other purposes.
“We don’t want them to run into losses. After all, these are charitable hospitals. But we want to fulfill our duty of providing affordable healthcare. That is why, we accepted the proposal without any opposition,” informed Trushna Vishwasrao, Shiv Sena leader.
The policy will be sent to the Improvements Committee and general assembly for further approvals.
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