At Rs 7,000 crore, healthcare gets 12 per cent of budget allocation

Mumbai: BMC has increased the 2024-25 healthcare allocation to over Rs 7,000 crore, marking a 14 per cent rise from the previous fiscal. This boost, constituting 12 per cent of Mumbai’s overall civic budget of nearly Rs 60,000 crore, is primarily earmarked for refurbishing peripheral hospitals, acquiring new equipment for medical colleges, and strengthening preventive services.

The health sector is set to get Rs 7,191.1 crore for the upcoming financial year, an increase from Rs 6,309 crore allotted in the previous fiscal. Within this allocation, Rs 1,716.9 crore is kept for capital expenses, effectively for creation of new infrastructure. This is a 24 per cent rise from last fiscal’s capital expenditure of Rs 1,384 crore. BMC chief I S Chahal said the investment will go towards uplifting all 16 peripheral hospitals and modernising existing colleges.

KEM’s 8-year wait for MRI machine to end?

The budget earmarks Rs 110 crore to acquire four 3-Tesla MRI machines for KEM, Nair, Sion and RN Cooper hospitals. This is crucial for KEM, which has faced delays since 2016 in procuring an MRI machine, causing patients to wait of nearly five to six months for scans. In the last 1.5 years, KEM’s efforts to obtain the machine were marked by drama, with BMC officials contesting the tender specifications as “excessive”. Procurement was further delayed by companies quoting “inflated” sums.Dr Sudhakar Shinde, additional municipal commissioner, said they contacted HLL Infra Tech Services Ltd, a subsidiary of HLL Lifecare Ltd, which supplied MRI machines to AIIMS, Delhi. “The company is providing each machine for Rs 27 crore, whereas private companies quoted Rs 37 crore for some additional scopes.” BMC has also allocated funds for machines to initiate heart transplants and revive liver transplants at KEM.

Medical colleges go online:

A total of Rs 306 crore has been allotted for implementing the hospital management information system, where health data is recorded, stored, analysed and processed in a digital platform, across all medical colleges. Currently, BYL Nair is the only hospital using it. The firm developing it will also provide manpower to operate it, Shinde said.Focus on non-communicable diseases:

BMC plans to roll out the ST elevation myocardial infarction project on a pilot basis this year. The project, which is already in motion across the state, is designed to pick up heart attacks in those who present with acute chest pain.Milind Mhaske of Praja Foundation gave a thumbs-up to the health budget, but said the civic body should have strengthened primary health centres, and provided details on hospital project outcomes for transparency.