MUMBAI: With the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections on the horizon, a broad coalition of civic organisations and health worker unions has intensified its agitation against the ongoing privatisation of Mumbai’s public hospitals under public-private partnership (PPP) arrangements, now rebranded as civic-health collaboration.
The “Aspatal Bachao, Nijikaran Hatao Kriti Samiti” (“Save Hospitals, Stop privatisation”), representing over 25 organisations, has launched a campaign demanding that the BMC immediately halt all PPP-based projects, fill vacant posts across hospitals, and strengthen the city’s public health system instead of outsourcing it to private players.
The coalition announced that it will organise citywide public meetings and awareness drives across Mumbai in the coming weeks, culminating in a state-level conference on November 30 to chart the next phase of its movement. It also plans to confront all political parties and candidates during the civic election campaign, urging them to take a clear stand against hospital privatisation. For candidates supporting PPP-based projects, the group will conduct information campaigns in their constituencies to inform constituents about their stance and the impact of the projects on public health initiatives.
“Over 20 PPP projects already operate within Mumbai’s municipal health system, covering ICUs, diagnostic centres, dialysis units and maternity homes,” said Dr Abhay Shukla, national co-convenor of Jan Swasthya Abhiyan. “There is no independent evidence that these arrangements have improved the quality of health services. A recent study on this revealed that rates charged to the patients under various municipal PPPs are found to be 2-25 times higher than public hospital rates.”
The coalition’s joint demands include immediate cancellation of all PPP-based privatisation proposals for public hospitals and health services, independent review of existing PPP projects and steps to bring them back under public management, urgent recruitment drives to fill vacancies among doctors, nurses, paramedics, and Class IV staff through regular appointments, not contracts.
Baban Thoke, a member of the movement, said, “We will be magnifying the agitation and involve more citizens as well. There will be a strike going forward, including all municipal workers, nurses, and every member of the movement against this policy.”
The demands also included increased public health budgets proportional to population needs and community-based monitoring and participatory governance mechanisms for transparency and accountability in BMC health services.
Dr Shukla said, “This is a manufactured crisis by allowing severe understaffing in civic hospitals to justify privatisation. There is also a decrease in the health budget allotted year on year”
“Instead of filling posts and strengthening public hospitals, the administration is outsourcing ICUs, diagnostics, and entire hospitals to private firms,” he added.
A Right to Information (RTI) response accessed by the coalition this month revealed alarming vacancy levels across major civic hospitals.
At KEM Hospital, 38% of professor posts and nearly 40% of associate professor positions are vacant, while Sion Hospital has over 68% vacancies among assistant professors and 48% among lab technicians. Nair Hospital fares no better, with 72% vacancies among assistant professors and over 60% vacancies among X-ray and theatre technicians. According to the coalition, this chronic understaffing directly affects patient care, delays treatment, and overburdens existing workers.
“Rather than fixing these systemic issues, the BMC is diverting funds and responsibilities to private contractors. We want this to be immediately halted. If not, we will take up large-scale agitations with all trade unions, municipal worker union, municipal paramedical and nurses union and citizens,” said Thoke.
Despite repeated calls from HT, BMC health department officials were unavailable for a comment.