COVID-19 breaks logjam over BBMP hospital in Shivajinagar

A 100-bed super-speciality hospital caught in red tape for two years will soon spring into action thanks to the Covid-19 crisis.

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) had in 2018 built the hospital on an area of 20,000 sq ft on Broadway Road near Russel Market in Shivajinagar at a cost of Rs 40 crore, including the land value.

Because of its inability to run the hospital, the civic body explored various options including leasing it to Narayana Health. After an outcry from civil society members, it was decided that the building will be handed over to Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital under the medical education department, which was again stuck in red tape.

The building stood there for two years, with no operations, without ever being formally inaugurated. Now, the government has decided to use it as a hospital exclusively dedicated to Covid-19, and the logjam has finally ended.

Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar told reporters here at a press conference, “The hospital will be handed over to the medical education department tomorrow (Wednesday). It will have 150 beds for Covid-19 patients. Infosys Foundation’s Sudha Murty has come forward to fund the equipment required for the hospital.”

Jawaid Akhtar, Additional Chief Secretary (Health), who is also the secretary for medical education, said the formalities to hand over the hospital to the medical education department are under way. To start with, the hospital will have an isolation ward with 120-150 beds and 20 ventillators.

Asked whether an MoU was signed between the Infosys Foundation and the health department, Akhtar said, “There is no MoU yet. But the agreement is that the hospital will be handed over to her (Sudha Murty); Infosys Foundation will take care of equipping the hospital and help the department tide over this crisis. There is no commercial element in this MoU. It was a voluntary gesture from her (Sudha Murty) foundation.”

Vijay S, a public health activist with the Karnataka Janarogya Chaluvali, said the hospital was proposed to be leased to Narayana Health for 30 years. “We had started a petition to stop this. Roshan Baig was representing the constituency then. The idea was finally scrapped. Former chief minister Siddaramaiah was supposed to inaugurate the hospital but it never happened.”