Pune: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is allocating crores of rupees every year to provide efficient health services. It has become clear that most of these provisions are being spent on salaries and unnecessary waste. It is a fact that citizens do not get adequate infrastructure from the available provision. Considering the growing population of the city, the health system seems to have collapsed and the strengthening of health services has remained on paper due to inadequate and ineffective systems, lack of experts, workforce crises and lack of adequate equipment.
The population of the city has gone beyond fifty lakhs. It is claimed that the health department is implementing various schemes to provide affordable treatment to the poor and needy patients.
The health department is more interested in making unnecessary purchases in the name of these schemes. Numerous NGOs have pointed out that municipal corporations are procuring various types of medical equipment at inflated rates, often when they are not needed.
PMC has adopted a policy of purchasing expensive equipment and not using trained workforce as it is needed in hospitals and clinics. If the system falls into disrepair, the corporation is trying to give it to an organization to run. This facility is not available to the common man properly, but due to the control of private institutions, this service is also becoming costly.
Despite the availability of expensive tests, treatment like dialysis, MRI as well as CT scan in the municipal hospital, the needy and poor patients are getting the benefit with exceptions. However, the corporation is regularly paying lakhs of rupees to the concerned institutions. The health department has come under fire for buying pesticides, generic drugs, and buying drugs at inflated rates.
It is a fact that there is a shortage of manpower for hospitals and dispensaries, which is creating difficulties in providing services to patients. But there seems to be no concrete pursuit to fill it.
Private medical care is unaffordable as it is somewhat expensive in the eyes of the general public. In this situation, municipal hospitals and dispensaries have a base for the common man. The fact remains that there is a shortage of specialist doctors to treat patients, even though some hospitals have facilities due to the incompetence of the municipal health system.
On the one hand, the policy of expansion of health services is dependent on the municipality, state-of-the-art medical equipment, construction of new maternity hospitals, empowerment of hospitals, while hospitals and dispensaries are devoid of doctors, specialists, medical officers and staff.
However, in the last seven years, the corporation has not been able to fill the posts. In seven years, seven doctors in the MBBS category have been recruited by the Pune Municipal Corporation, which shows how the health service is.
No purchase details
After the outbreak of swine flu ten years ago, the shortcomings of the health system in controlling it were exacerbated. Even then, no lessons have been learned. Therefore, concrete measures could not be implemented even in times like Corona. Billions are being procured under the name of Corona as a matter of urgency. But the fact is that the details of what was bought could not be given to the health department.
