<p>At the same time that the 'BMC model' was being hailed across the country, two integral parts of that model gave way, casting a shadow over its glitter. In the span of just four days last week, first resident doctors and then nurses chose the last resort left to frustrated employees — they struck work or threatened to do so.</p>.<p>One would imagine every health worker would be worth his or her weight in gold during this pandemic, especially with an overwhelming second wave. For patients especially, nurses and doctors are the only saviours. But obviously, the BMC doesn’t share that view.</p>.<p>In fact, a Shiv Sena corporator, livid that her relative had been made to wait for admission last month, told doctors in a municipal hospital that she could make 10 doctors like them line up in front of her. A half-hearted apology followed when the doctors threatened to resign.</p>.<p>The BMC may not share this corporator’s opinion of doctors (incidentally, she’s also in her second term as chairperson of the BMC’s Education Committee), but its administrators definitely share her approach of righting wrongs done by them only when those who’ve been wronged assert themselves.</p>.<p>Last week, after 200 nurses at one of the BMC’s famous Jumbo Covid Centres went on a flash strike, the BMC tweeted that their issues had been resolved. Yes, they had got upset and there were some differences, but didn’t this happen at all workplaces, asked the tweet. "All it took was a patient listening and attending to their genuine needs. Our #CovidWarriors are back at work and we are #StrongerTogether."</p>.<p>What was left unsaid was that it took the BMC an entire year to "patiently listen" to the "genuine need" for decent accommodation and nutritious food for nurses hired for the pandemic from the state’s interiors.</p>.<p>Similarly, the BMC is aware of the demand for payment of arrears by resident doctors who form the backbone of Covid care in the BMC’s hospitals, and who, for the second consecutive year, have missed pursuing their areas of specialisation since they’ve been summoned for Covid duty. Yet, last week, these doctors were forced to display posters in their workplaces and conduct a social media campaign against the BMC because the latter slyly converted the initial "stipend" paid to them into an "advance" against the hiked stipend approved seven months ago.</p>.<p>The BMC’s meanness should be juxtaposed with three facts: first, it has for decades, been the wealthiest municipal corporation in Asia, with an annual budget of over Rs 30,000 crore.</p>.<p>In fact, as it became clear that vaccines were going to fall short, a two-term Sena MP and four-time head of the BMC’s Standing Committee (the Sena has ruled the BMC for 24 years), suggested that the Corporation break its fixed deposits amounting to a staggering Rs 79,000 crore, to buy vaccines for all Mumbaikars, which would cost not even 10% of that amount. Interestingly, among those who shouted him down was the leader of the Opposition in the BMC, a veteran Congress corporator.</p>.<p>The second factor that makes the BMC’s tightfistedness unjustifiable is its expenditure on the environmentally destructive Coastal Road, which is ruining the city’s famous seafront to benefit car owners. Given the go-ahead by BJP governments at the Centre and state, the Sena government has ensured that work on it has not stopped during the pandemic. Its cost: Rs 12,700 crore. The BMC’s health budget for the last two years has been just one-third of that, only marginally higher this year despite last year’s pandemic.</p>.<p>But will even this health budget be fully used? A September 2020 PRAJA White Paper on Mumbai’s health showed that from 2017-2019, even as municipal medical and paramedical vacancies rose to as much as 47%, the BMC allowed 18% of its revenue expenditure on health to lapse. A shocking 58% of its capital expenditure on health also remained unspent. Had these crores been used correctly, breathless Mumbaikars wouldn’t have been running around for ICU beds last year and briefly, this year.</p>.<p>Shorn of statistics, what this means is that though the BMC should have used its crores on hiring permanent medical personnel at all levels through the year-long Covid crisis, it chose to hire these crucial workers on contract and then underpay them. It could at least have started construction of additional hospitals, but it chose to focus only on temporary facilities. When these are finally dismantled, where will the lakhs of Mumbaikars permanently damaged by Covid go?</p>.<p><em>(The writer is a senior journalist.)</em></p>.<p><em>Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author’s own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH</em></p>
<p>At the same time that the 'BMC model' was being hailed across the country, two integral parts of that model gave way, casting a shadow over its glitter. In the span of just four days last week, first resident doctors and then nurses chose the last resort left to frustrated employees — they struck work or threatened to do so.</p>.<p>One would imagine every health worker would be worth his or her weight in gold during this pandemic, especially with an overwhelming second wave. For patients especially, nurses and doctors are the only saviours. But obviously, the BMC doesn’t share that view.</p>.<p>In fact, a Shiv Sena corporator, livid that her relative had been made to wait for admission last month, told doctors in a municipal hospital that she could make 10 doctors like them line up in front of her. A half-hearted apology followed when the doctors threatened to resign.</p>.<p>The BMC may not share this corporator’s opinion of doctors (incidentally, she’s also in her second term as chairperson of the BMC’s Education Committee), but its administrators definitely share her approach of righting wrongs done by them only when those who’ve been wronged assert themselves.</p>.<p>Last week, after 200 nurses at one of the BMC’s famous Jumbo Covid Centres went on a flash strike, the BMC tweeted that their issues had been resolved. Yes, they had got upset and there were some differences, but didn’t this happen at all workplaces, asked the tweet. "All it took was a patient listening and attending to their genuine needs. Our #CovidWarriors are back at work and we are #StrongerTogether."</p>.<p>What was left unsaid was that it took the BMC an entire year to "patiently listen" to the "genuine need" for decent accommodation and nutritious food for nurses hired for the pandemic from the state’s interiors.</p>.<p>Similarly, the BMC is aware of the demand for payment of arrears by resident doctors who form the backbone of Covid care in the BMC’s hospitals, and who, for the second consecutive year, have missed pursuing their areas of specialisation since they’ve been summoned for Covid duty. Yet, last week, these doctors were forced to display posters in their workplaces and conduct a social media campaign against the BMC because the latter slyly converted the initial "stipend" paid to them into an "advance" against the hiked stipend approved seven months ago.</p>.<p>The BMC’s meanness should be juxtaposed with three facts: first, it has for decades, been the wealthiest municipal corporation in Asia, with an annual budget of over Rs 30,000 crore.</p>.<p>In fact, as it became clear that vaccines were going to fall short, a two-term Sena MP and four-time head of the BMC’s Standing Committee (the Sena has ruled the BMC for 24 years), suggested that the Corporation break its fixed deposits amounting to a staggering Rs 79,000 crore, to buy vaccines for all Mumbaikars, which would cost not even 10% of that amount. Interestingly, among those who shouted him down was the leader of the Opposition in the BMC, a veteran Congress corporator.</p>.<p>The second factor that makes the BMC’s tightfistedness unjustifiable is its expenditure on the environmentally destructive Coastal Road, which is ruining the city’s famous seafront to benefit car owners. Given the go-ahead by BJP governments at the Centre and state, the Sena government has ensured that work on it has not stopped during the pandemic. Its cost: Rs 12,700 crore. The BMC’s health budget for the last two years has been just one-third of that, only marginally higher this year despite last year’s pandemic.</p>.<p>But will even this health budget be fully used? A September 2020 PRAJA White Paper on Mumbai’s health showed that from 2017-2019, even as municipal medical and paramedical vacancies rose to as much as 47%, the BMC allowed 18% of its revenue expenditure on health to lapse. A shocking 58% of its capital expenditure on health also remained unspent. Had these crores been used correctly, breathless Mumbaikars wouldn’t have been running around for ICU beds last year and briefly, this year.</p>.<p>Shorn of statistics, what this means is that though the BMC should have used its crores on hiring permanent medical personnel at all levels through the year-long Covid crisis, it chose to hire these crucial workers on contract and then underpay them. It could at least have started construction of additional hospitals, but it chose to focus only on temporary facilities. When these are finally dismantled, where will the lakhs of Mumbaikars permanently damaged by Covid go?</p>.<p><em>(The writer is a senior journalist.)</em></p>.<p><em>Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author’s own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH</em></p>