Civic Body Takes Bopodi Hospital Under its Wings

Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) will run the 100-bed Draupadabai Murlidhar Khedekar General Hospital and Trauma Care Center at Bopodi on its own after locals complained they had been deprived of quality treatment, as it was outsourced to Sahyadri Hospitals. The facilities here will be upgraded on a par with private hospital while providing treatment for free or at discounted rates to residents of the PMC area. Since 2008, it was outsourced to Sahyadri Hospitals under public-private partnership agreement. Now, the elected representatives want PMC at the helm. The decision was taken during a recent meeting between BJP MLA from Shivaji Nagar, Vijay Kale, corporators of Bopodi-Aundh area, PMC health chief Ramchandra Hankare and PMC officials. “We have made arrangements of Rs 50 Lakh to upgrade the facilities and asked the state government to release purses under the MLA local area development fund. Once it is approved, it will be used to upgrade the facilities and we want the PMC to run it,” said Kale.

“Poor people from the area will avail free treatment. Patients who are not from the PMC area and eligible for the free or discounted treatment will be charged normally.The maternity facility, managed by PMC at present, will be upgraded. Even if more funds are needed, arrangements can be made as no poor person should die for lack of funds,” Kale. BJP corporator Prakash Dhore said, “We want the PMC to provide all the facilities that were available earlier but the PMC-area residents should be treated for free. If the patient belongs to a well-to-do family, s/he can be charged as per market rates. The hospital was shut down only because the citizens were not given treatment as per the agreement with PMC.” Hankare said, “The hospital is a much-needed facility catering to Bopodi, Aundh Road, Khadki, Dapodi and Wakdewadi areas over a radius of 7 km with a high concentration of poor and lower middleclass residents. There will be facilities like ICU, dialysis center, operation center, X-ray, sonography, CT scan among others. We also want expertise to run the center and are working on it. We are into planning phase and looking to all pros and cons about functioning of the hospital.” – Pune Mirror