300 to 1k+ beds: Pvt hosps get bigger but manpower an issue
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In Juhu, a multi-storeyed building is coming up within the 330-bedded Nanavati Max Hospital complex, set to more than double the present bed strength. Civil work on the proposed 1,000-bedded hospital by D-Mart owners in Borivli East is progressing. Clearly, hectic activity is ongoing in the city's hospital space.
While announcing the BMC budget in Feb, commissioner Bhushan Gagrani said the city has 15,302 beds in govt hospitals and 31,076 beds in private hospitals, with another 3,515 beds being added through renovations to various BMC hospitals.
The expansion trend, though, has multiple layers. For one, private hospitals that usually stuck to a few hundred beds are aiming closer to 1,000 beds—a number usually reserved for public super-specialty hospitals that have medical schools attached to them.
For another, multiple hospitals are witnessing an exodus of human resources as "competition" heats up.
At present, Bombay Hospital in New Marine Lines and Kokilaben Ambani Hospital in Andheri have over 700 beds.
But Nanavati and the D-Mart hospitals too will be big; a medical school by the Adani group in Kandivli will have 1,500 beds. "Many hospitals have begun adopting the marginal costing theory," said Dr Vivek Desai of HOSMAC, a hospital management consultancy firm. This means they will opt to build large capacities but will not focus on getting the same cost for each bed from all patients.
"Many beds will go to patients who are retired govt servants or from economically weaker sections who are supported by govt schemes such as CGHS or Ayushman Bharat," said Dr Desai.
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The Maharashtra govt has also announced universal healthcare for people aged over 70 years that will allow them to get subsidised or free care at some private and public hospitals respectively.
With more beds, not only will the volume of patients be higher, but diagnostics and therapeutic services will be better utilised. The idea of a multispecialty hospital appeals to corporate healthcare providers as they can put up the revenue-earning specialties of cancer, cardiology, gastroenterology and orthopaedics under one roof. However, a senior doctor with a BMC hospital said that the "movement" in the private healthcare space may suffer due to a "paucity of skilled personnel, both medical and non-medical".
Studies done by NGOs in the past have shown gaps in healthcare in suburbs, with few public beds in the distant northern suburbs.
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