Mumbai: 2 Covid waves, but ESIC Hospital yet to start operations 3 years after fire – Times of India

MUMBAI: It will be three years on Friday since the fire at Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) Hospital at Marol in Andheri, but two Covid waves and several assurances later, the 325-bed facility is yet to resume operations.
Although there was not much damage to the building—it was mainly the smoke that killed 13 people— the renovation work at the five-storey hospital has moved on at a snail’s pace, employees alleged.
“We were assured operations would resume in six to 12 months. Now, 36 months are over, but the hospital remains defunct,” said a senior staffer, adding that even the multiple Covid waves in the city couldn’t pull the authorities out of inertia.
When TOI visited the Marol hospital recently, there was no active construction activity on the premises. The ground floor, where the fire had started, is waiting for completion of electrical and air-conditioning connections. New consultation rooms have been created, but the ceiling and electrical work are awaiting final touches. A pharmacy, planned on the ground floor, is yet to take shape. The furniture in wards on the higher floors have not been delivered. Not to mention, the expensive CT scan and MRI machines that have been lying idle for years now.
Pranay Sinha, regional director of ESIC, told TOI the outpatient departments will start functioning in a month or two. “We have applied for fire clearance from MIDC. They had asked for some revised drawings of the structure, which have been provided,” he said.
When the second wave raged in Mumbai and there was need for more isolation facilities, public health minister Rajesh Tope had written to the ministry of state for labour and employment on April 16, urging that funds be made available to finish the repairs on priority. The state wanted the first 100 beds to be handed over in 15 days. But it didn’t happen.
Both state and BMC officials told TOI that ESIC hospitals could have played a bigger role in the fight against Covid if the infrastructure was in place. Only 50 of the 350 beds at Worli ESIC Hospital are operational. Calling the claims that ESIC hospitals were unavaila-ble for Covid “untrue”, Sinha said nearly 2,000 patients were treated at the Kandivli hospital. Across Maharashtra, 2,050 beds belonging to 12 ESIC/ESIS hospitals were sanctioned for Covid treatment.
Jodhraj Bairwa, secretary general, All India ESIC Nurses Federation, said in public interest, the Marol hospital should be started without any delay. Beneficiaries of the ESIC scheme contribute up to 2% from their salaries, but end up going to private hospitals.