BMC’s plan to privatise civic hospitals faces opposition from unions, social groups

Municipal health worker unions also flagged that outsourcing the health services under the public-private partnership (PPP) model will impact secure employment opportunities for health workers.

Earlier this year, the BMC floated plans for the privatisation of crucial health services ranging from cardiology, dialysis centres to blood bank units in at least six of its civic peripheral hospitals under a PPP model.

After the complete privatisation of Bhagwati hospital was scrapped in April, the civic body has charted plans to award contracts to private operators for up to 30 years to operate crucial healthcare services.

Over the past few months, several groups — including Aspatal Bachao, Nijikaran Hatao Kriti Samiti which is a coalition of 25 organisations — have been conducting several protests demanding halt of privatising of Shatabdi and Lallubhai hospitals.

In a bid to voice concerns over the crippling health services, several city-based social groups and unions including Municipal Mazdoor union, Municipal nursing and Paramedical Staff Union as well as Aspatal Bachao Samiti convened a meeting Monday.

Speaking during the meeting, the unions flagged that privatisation could replace free public services with paid care, severely impacting the city’s poorest.

Citing a recent study of healthcare PPPs in Mumbai and Pune, the unions flagged that the rates charged at PPP-run hospitals were between two to 25 times higher than the public hospital rates.

Pointing to existing PPP projects in the civic health system, the gathering said that there is no independent evidence that showed that the privatisation arrangement had improved accountability.

During the meeting, municipal health worker unions also demanded that the privatisation plan must be suspended, calling for emphasis on the regular recruitment, as well as creation of new posts to keep up with the city’s rising health demands.

The groups and unions also appealed to the BMC to chart a comprehensive plan to strengthen public health services through regular recruitment, raise in budgets as well as more community-based monitoring of BMC health services to ensure transparency.

“BMC’s health services are in a very bad state with RTI details revealing that major hospitals like KEM, Nair and Sion have massive vacancies in several areas ranging from professors to pharmacy and operation theatre operators. In November 2023, the then CM Eknath Shinde had announced plans to launch the Zero Prescription policy. However, two years later, the BMC floated tenders for the plan only last month,” said Girish of Kamgar Ekta Committee.

Dr. Abhay Shukla, during the event said, “The BMC hospital system itself is in the ICU.”