Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation opts for PPP for ICU beds

The health department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is set to share 180 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds under public-private partnership. (File)

Following a pilot project in a few hospitals, the health department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is set to share 180 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds under public-private partnership (PPP) for want of specialised care. “We do not have many MD doctors to cater to ICU patients. Because there is dearth of intensivists, we decided to pay private health agencies for handling the ICU patients,” said Dr Avinash Supe, director of tertiary care and medical education in the BMC. The pilot project first began four years ago in Rajawadi hospital (Ghatkopar), VN Desai (Santacruz) and Hinduhriday Samrat Balasaheb Trauma-care Hospital (Jogeshwari) where 40-50 beds were reserved under PPP.

Officials said under the project, consumables and drugs were provided by BMC while the medical and paramedical staff support was headed by a private agency. In the proposal, 180 ICU beds across all municipal hospitals, including major hospitals like KEM, Sion, Nair and RN Cooper, will be handed over to private agencies through a tendering process. “Until now, we had different agencies handling ICU beds in the three hospitals,” a BMC official said.

BMC will pay a cost of Rs 1,700 to Rs 2,500 per bed. The agency will have to provide specialised nursing and medical care while bed and supplies will be provided by BMC. “We have taken out a tender. Two to three agencies participated in it. We have clubbed hospitals under groups and an agency will look after hospitals in one particular group,” said Idzes Kundan, additional municipal commissioner (AMC)
with the BMC. The lowest bid came from Jeevan Jyot at Rs 1,700. The highest bid touched over Rs 2,500.

While health experts have remained wary of the PPP model in healthcare claiming private players will not provide low cost healthcare until they get huge profits, BMC has claimed to have a good experience in the past. Under health infrastructure, BMC has outsourced its MRI, CT scan, dialysis services to private agencies. The BMC-run hospitals have also handed over security to a private agency along with contract for maintaining cleanliness. Abhijeet More, from Jan Arogya Abhiyaan, however, said, “If BMC can pay private agencies, why can’t it increase salaries to pay specialised doctors?” He added that private players will only enter for profiteering in the government sector.

Kundan said, “We are only entering into PPP in areas where we lack resources. We are not losing focus of the agenda. Patients will continue to pay at BMC rates. We have defined quality and performance criteria and so far the experience with PPP has remained good.”