Cash-strapped NDMC to merge two hospitals

With lesser number of patients turning up in Rajan Babu Institute for Pulmonary Medicines and Tube-rculosis (RBIPMT) and Maharishi Valmiki Infectious Disease Hospital (MVIDH), the North Delhi Municipal Corporation has decided to reduce the number of beds by merging the two hospitals.

The municipal body is in the process of reducing the number of beds in the TB hospital from 1,155 to 700 and from 227 beds to 150 in Maharishi hospital. When established in 1935, RBIPMT had only 68 beds; which gradually rose to the current 1,155 beds in two multi-storied blocks.

Similarly, MVIDH, established in 1930 to treat patients for infectious diseases like cholera, gastroenteritis and diphtheria, had a bed strength of 167, which was later increased to 227. The bed occupancy rate on most days in both the hospitals was around 90 to 95 per cent till 2004, according to a senior NDMC official. Since 2010, the bed occupancy in both these hospitals is constantly decreasing. On scrutinising the record of both the hospitals for the last two years on a day-to-day basis, it was found that MVIDH had a maximum of 117 patients on a particular day. In the TB hospital, only 45 to 55 per cent beds were occupied on a regular basis.

Officials said the merger of the two hospitals would improve sanitation and hygienic conditions and ensure better availability of quality drinking water. A senior bureaucrat said due to better coverage of population by universal immunisation programme in the country, the number of admissions has gone down and was likely to decrease further.

“Similarly, availability of good quality TB drugs near patient’s homes has been another reason why less number of TB patients are getting themselves admitted in government hospitals,” an official said.

The NDMC, which is facing a financial crisis, felt that the merger would help them save about Rs 25 crore every year. “Around 400 posts will also be abolished after the merger of the two hospitals,” a senior health officer told this newspaper.