After 48 days, Pune’s Navale hospital resumes patient admissions

At a time when the hospital used to register close to 2,500 patients daily in the outpatient department (OPD) and even had to arrange floor beds to accommodate the patient load, the wards remained deserted. Only college students–both undergraduate and post-graduate–attended classes and anxiously waited for the hospital to resume patient admissions as clinical exposure is essential for their training.

“With no patients to attend to, we were struggling, as the lack of clinical exposure hinders our training and ability to provide essential care,” a post-graduate resident doctor had said on condition of anonymity. Authorities at Sinhgad Technical Education Society that runs the college said that non-teaching staff had called off the strike on Wednesday.

Dr Arvind Bhore, Medical Director at Smt Kashbibai Navale Medical College and General Hospital, admitted that there were zero patients at the hospital for nearly 48 days and added that authorities had been involved in making alternative arrangements. The management has assured the agitating staff of meeting their demands. Bhai Jagtap, a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Council and a leader of the Bharatiya Kamgar Karmachari Mahasangh, also assured the agitating staff on Wednesday that their demands would be met.

Located at Ambegaon Narhe, the hospital was started in 2006 with just 300 beds and expanded to 1,200 beds. While 700 teaching beds were functional, the increasing patient number also led to upgradation of infrastructure to provide better care for patients. The medical college was also started with an initial intake of 100 students for the MBBS course in September 2007. The intake capacity for MBBS has increased to 150 students while there are close to 85 seats for post-graduate courses. The medical college and hospital is run by Sinhgad Technical Education Society (STES). The STES also runs several other institutions that offer engineering, management and other diploma and degree programmes.

In the recent past, the STES had its share of financial troubles and there have been protests due to the management’s failure to pay staff salaries. There were also allegations of defaulting on bank loans and the civic administration had also initiated action to recover unpaid property taxes. It was reliably learnt that the crisis at the hospital was also triggered as the hospital account was sealed and close to Rs 122 crore was recovered by the state I-T department.

Dr Krishnakant Patil, dean, confirmed that close to Rs 122 crore was taken. “However, our account is open and we are making alternative arrangements,” Dr Patil had said.
When contacted, Prof M N Navale, president of Singhad Technical Education Society that runs the college and hospital told The Indian Express that they had to receive over Rs 300 crore from the state government as reimbursement of fees for students belonging to SC/ST, OBC, EBC, EWS categories, and girls from lower-income groups. “Altogether, this amounts to nearly 80% of the total fees. In addition, last year’s pending receivables amount to over ₹35 crore. Under these circumstances, the delay in salary payments has become unavoidable,” he said, adding that the hospital will resume operations shortly.