Medicine Shortage Crisis in Mumbai Civic Hospitals, Alleges Shiv Sena Leader Aaditya Thackeray

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader says hospitals running out of medicines and equipment; health activists say the Shiv Sena split only a year ago and ran BMC for over 25 years, during which it could have improved services, infrastructure

 A week after Chief Minister Eknath Shinde paid a surprise visit to the civic-run KEM Hospital, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray on Tuesday alleged that all civic hospitals have run out of basic medicines and patient services have been hit hard. He alleged that the civic chief is not bothered about the hospital and patients have to fend for themselves.

Absolute lack of support from civic admin: Aditya

“BMC-run hospitals are helpless as never before due to the absolute lack of support from the civic administration and its Central Purchase Department,” said Thackeray. Posting on X, formerly Twitter, Thackeray said he is tweeting the plight of hospitals since the civic body “only responds when in public domain”. 

“The BMC administration is directly run from the Contractor Mantri (CM) office; for the past year, it has only been seen serving builders and contractors but not the people,” Thackeray alleged. 

Notably, the Shiv Sena (undivided) headed by Aaditya’s father Uddhav Thackeray controlled the cash-rich BMC for 25 years from 1997 to 2022. Currently, the BMC’s affairs are managed by the administrator, who was appointed last March after the term of the civic body expired but elections are yet to be held. 

Since he took charge, additional municipal commissioner Dr Sudhakar Shinde has visited 100 hospitals; paying surprise visits to check for loopholes in services and how they can be improved. He is also said to have taken several cleanliness and hygiene measures, including anti-rodent steps.

Thackeray claimed doctors and staff at Sion Hospital are working tirelessly to support the services but the hospital is fast running out of basic medicines, gloves and X-ray film stock. “It is bizarre for the BMC administration and CPD to expect the hospitals to carry out work procurement work,” he added. He also alleged that promotions of doctors have been stalled for a year now and many posts are lying vacant in civic hospitals. 

Health activists, however, slammed Thackeray, calling his war mongering an exercise to gain votes. The Shiv Sena has been ruling the richest civic body for many years but hasn’t provided good facilities to patients or improved the infrastructure of any hospital, they said.

“Many redevelopment or renovation projects of civic hospitals are pending and only a few of them have been completed by 10-15%. The healthcare services in all civic hospitals are pathetic. If they really wanted health care service to improve, it would have been done long ago. People easily fall for these stunts,” an activist said.