Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker Dilip Walse-Patil today directed the Government to prepare a report on the condition of municipal hospitals in the state, and submit it to the lower House within a week.
The directive came on a calling-attention notice regarding the state of the civic-run Shatabdi Hospital in eastern suburb of Govandi.
The Speaker said the government should find out how the municipal hospitals were functioning and what problems they were facing.
"The government should provide financial assistance if necessary," the Speaker said.
Speaker noted that most municipal hospitals were not in good condition and the patients preferred super-speciality hospitals run by the government. "This results in the super-speciality hospitals being over-burdened," Walse-Patil said. He asked members to refrain from politicising the issue by discussing which party ruled in the municipal body where hospitals were in a bad condition.
Earlier, Nawab Malik (NCP) had said that Shiv Sena-BJP run Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had ignored the Shatabdi hospital as it was the only hospital which catered to the Dalits and Muslims living in the slums.
Stray dogs roamed in the hospital, he alleged. BJP member Sardar Tara Singh wondered if the government would pave way for privatisation of the hospital if the civic body was not capable of running it.
