Mumbai: The BMC should raise its health expenditure to 25% of its budget over the next 5 years, end private partnerships, and recruit more healthcare staff on a war-footing, as Mumbai’s public healthcare was weakened by privatisation, vacancies, and underinvestment.This demand is the central plank of a unique health manifesto worked out by Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, a coalition of NGOs, ahead of civic polls. “Jan Swasthya Abhiyan developed this manifesto through discussions, and we will send it to various candidates and political parties for endorsement,” said JSA’s Dr Abhay Shukla. JSA led protests against public-private partnerships, called ‘Civic Health Collaborations’ by BMC higher-ups. Last year, it floated tenders for PPP for its 581-bed Shatabdi Hospital and Medical College in Govandi, and a 400-bed hospital in Lallubhai Compound, Mankhurd. The PPP plan for Bhagwati Hospital in Borivli was scrapped after union minister Piyush Goyal’s intervention.BMC also wants private collaborators for services such as dialysis, scanning, and blood banks in most of its 16 suburban hospitals.Stating public services were weakened by privatisation and underinvestment, the JSA manifesto urged politicians to focus on ways to “rebuild public healthcare for people, not profit”. Urging the civic body to restart ward committees to ensure direct public management, the manifesto asked the BMC to increase health spending to 25% of its budget over the next 5 years. “Efforts should be made to reduce out-of-pocket expenditure for citizens,” said the doctor. User fee, a concept the BMC introduced in the 1990s, should be scrapped, and the goal should be to guarantee free medicines, diagnostics, and procedures at public hospitals.There is a need to increase aapla davakhana clinics, which operate within communities in the evenings. According to health economist Dr Ravi Duggal, who is a member of JSA, the city needs at least 700 aapla davakhanas given its population. There should be 1 primary healthcare centre per 20,000 population and within a 15-minute walking distance for most people. The JSA coalition called for all vacancies across BMC health facilities to be filled through regular recruitment, and for outsourcing to end. Prices in the private sector should be regulated.
