Mumbai: In view of new hospitals being set up and upgradation of equipments, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) announced its health budget for the year 2019-20. It is proposed to raise the health budget to Rs 4,151.14 crore, which is nearly 15 per cent increase from the last year’s budget, which was Rs 3,601.86 crores.
The BMC has also allotted Rs 2 crore for developing five-storey building for Khar Veterinary dispensary headquarters.
The process of acquiring 26 different types of medical equipments costing around Rs 100 crore in this financial year has also been initiated. These equipments include high-end investigative facilities including three Tesla MRI. C.T scan, ventilators, anaesthesia machines, central patients monitoring systems for Intensive care units (ICU) and mobile dental van etc.
While speaking to the media, the BMC commissioner Ajoy Mehta said, “This budget primarily focuses on the health of Mumbaikars. This year we have proposed Rs 4,151 crores for the health sector in the city. The health budget has been increased by Rs 400 crores.”
The BMC commissioner further said, “As the peripheral hospitals are not fully equipped, the patients have to rush all the way to KEM, Sion and Nair Hospital. This puts extra pressure on the major civic-run hospitals in Mumbai. In order to ease the pressure from the major hospitals, we are upgrading the hospitals to super specialty. Considering this, we have increased the health budget.”
The municipal corporation has also allotted Rs 4,151.14 crore (13 per cent of total budget) for public health department and Rs 3,323 crore for the new Development Plan of the city.
