Doc who puts BMC hospitals in dock

Statisticians at Praja say 138 corporators did not ask a single question on health through the year.

Saeeda’s pointed questions have ranged from issues of public health at affordable prices,ambulances and other support systems and facilities in BMC-run hospitals.

Saeeda’s background as a doctor before becoming a corporator on NCP ticket has only added a sharp edge to her questions that have left many squirming. She got her MBBS degree from Bangalore University and later trained in Mumbai to become an anesthetist. Having grown up and done her schooling in Mumbai,Saeeda is well aware of the problems ailing the civic hospitals in the city.

Of the 31 questions she has asked in BMC’s general body and health committee meetings,Saeeda raised issues like lack of services,both of essential kind and speciality-related. Be it the delay and loss caused to patients due to unavailability of heart,lung equipment at KEM or malpractices by doctors asking patients who have paid for the full package of coronary artery bypass grafts to get medicine from outside,she has taken up almost every issue related to public healthcare.

She has also flagged the issue of some malaria patients at municipal hospitals being charged more for the same medicine and the lack of control of hospitals over private-run ambulances at maternity homes and speciality homes.

“I noticed that 16 peripheral hospitals under the BMC do not have surgeons,doctors and quality staff. For bigger hospitals to be effective in specialty cases,our peripheral hospitals should be strong enough to bear the burden of patients suffering from common diseases,” Saeeda says,while arguing for more teeth to peripheral hospitals.

She says she has lost count of the letters she has sent to BMC chief Sitaram Kunte and other civic body bosses on peripheral hospitals.

Things have finally moved with the college of physicians and surgeons launching courses to recruit doctors in such centres.

Dr Suhasini Nagda,director,public health,says while it is a joint effort of all concerned,Khan’s letters did help in getting the focus shifted to peripheral hospitals. “Her letters and questions helped in giving a momentum to the initiative. She knows the intricacies much better as she is herself a doctor.”

Saeeda,meanwhile,is working on several other projects,including one on easing the burden of the families at the stage of collecting bodies of their kin and a good and functional dialysis centre. “Even today,women deliver their babies at the gates of hospital since they are just being shunted from one department to another even during the labour pain.”

Praja’s Milind Mhaske says Saeeda’s questions always focused on the root problem and brought “depth” to the House’s session.