Apex Hospital cuts 60 staffers after BMC crackdown
Following a High Court order asking Mulund’s Apex Hospital to shut all operations and to function only as a maternity centre, the hospital has cut 60 staffers from their services.
The High Court decision was triggered by the fact that despite only having permission to run a maternity centre on a public-private partnership basis, the hospital expanded into a 70-bed superspeciality hospital being run for profit.
BMC had sent several notices to the hospital, asking them to vacate the premises but the hospital moved the High Court for a stay order. However, the court’s rejection of the order to shut down all non-permitted operations by November 16 had left the hospital with no other option. Last week, the hospital shut all its multi-speciality departments like orthopaedics, general surgery, urology, cardiac surgery, oncology surgery, plastic surgery, hip replacement surgery, neuro surgery and gastrology. A 12-bed ICU has also been shut. The staffers were fired in the last two days.
Around 10 years ago, the BMC had signed agreements with 20 private charitable trusts to run maternity centres and had handed over civic plots to them at the cost of Rs 1 per sq ft. But 16 of these were found to be running super-speciality medical facilities. The corporation had asked these centres to stop admitting new patients and to vacate their premises.
Dr Vrajesh Shah, director, Apex Hospital, said, “It’s a court order and are left with no choice but to shut all departments except for the maternity ward. One ward does not require so many staffers and so we are forced to sack.” Contradicting BMC’s allegations, he said, “They were aware of our super-speciality facility, but they are accusing us of keeping them in the dark.”
The High Court decision was triggered by the fact that despite only having permission to run a maternity centre on a public-private partnership basis, the hospital expanded into a 70-bed superspeciality hospital being run for profit.
BMC had sent several notices to the hospital, asking them to vacate the premises but the hospital moved the High Court for a stay order. However, the court’s rejection of the order to shut down all non-permitted operations by November 16 had left the hospital with no other option. Last week, the hospital shut all its multi-speciality departments like orthopaedics, general surgery, urology, cardiac surgery, oncology surgery, plastic surgery, hip replacement surgery, neuro surgery and gastrology. A 12-bed ICU has also been shut. The staffers were fired in the last two days.
“We are sacked from the hospital all of a sudden. Where will we go? We were not even asked to serve the notice period, but were told not to come for work from Monday onwards,” said a nurse from Apex Hospital.
Around 10 years ago, the BMC had signed agreements with 20 private charitable trusts to run maternity centres and had handed over civic plots to them at the cost of Rs 1 per sq ft. But 16 of these were found to be running super-speciality medical facilities. The corporation had asked these centres to stop admitting new patients and to vacate their premises.
Dr Vrajesh Shah, director, Apex Hospital, said, “It’s a court order and are left with no choice but to shut all departments except for the maternity ward. One ward does not require so many staffers and so we are forced to sack.” Contradicting BMC’s allegations, he said, “They were aware of our super-speciality facility, but they are accusing us of keeping them in the dark.”
