Maharashtra boosts healthcare with e-cells, training and free operations

MUMBAI: Medical students at state-run JJ Hospital in Byculla will—like IITians—soon wear entrepreneurial hats and market medical innovations. Young doctors at state-run Cama Hospital, near CSMT, will be the first medical students in the country to learn about the new field of uro-gynecology.


Thanks to 21 memorandums of understanding the state signed with private parties on Thursday, medical students and teachers, as well as patients, can look forward to working out business models, attend fellowships or undergo free surgeries. Cancer surgeon Dr Sultan Pradhan has signed up to offer specialized training in head and neck cancer surgery for teachers from state-run medical colleges. “These MoUs will help us offer better care for our patients. Due to staff crunch, we are not able to get all experts at each of our hospitals, but the private sector has willing stepped in,” said medical education secretary Sanjeev Deshmukh.

Consider urogynecological disorders, which affect one in four women, but there is no teaching hospital that looks at this super-specialty. “Urogynecological disorders result from one of the most important milestones in a woman’s life: childbirth. Yet, the field is still at a nascent stage in India,” said urogynecologist Dr Aparna Hegde, who will head the new department at Cama Hospital. “In a patriarchal society...it is gratifying that the state has been forward-thinking enough to enter into an agreement to create a state-of-theart clinical and academic centre of excellence in the field.”

The entrepreneurial cell will come up next month with funding provided by IVFspecialist-angel investor Dr Anirudhha Malpani. “Medical students are best placed to innovate as far as medical technology is concerned. This centre will provide them an opportunity to interact with other professionals,” said Dr Malpani.

Poor patients, too, will gain due to the MoUs. The state has tied up with doctors, including Dr Muffazal Lakdawala, Dr Raman Deshpande and Dr Ramakanta Panda, to perform 1,000 surgeries each over the next two years for patients with metabolic diseases, cancer and paediatric cardiac problems.