Pvt hospitals reluctant to join BMC’s effort to combat TB
Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has found only one private hospital willing to collaborate on drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) centres, despite appeals to major corporate hospitals. Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital has agreed to partner with BMC, offering access to the latest TB drugs. BMC is urging other hospitals to change their approach and provide dedicated wards for TB patients. Mumbai has the highest TB burden in India, with 65,556 new cases recorded in 2022. Private DR-TB centres would improve access to treatment, as many patients prefer private healthcare.
Mumbai: Six months after it expressed interest in starting drug-resistant tuberculosis centres (DR-TB) in private hospitals to make TB treatment more accessible for patients, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) finds only one private hospital coming forward as others continue to show reluctance.
BMC’s health team held a second round of meetings with Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital (KDAH)-Andheri last week, which said they are ready to collaborate with the corporation to fight TB.
Dr Santosh Shetty, CEO, KDAH, said, “We will be going ahead with the collaboration as it will also mean that our patients will get access to the latest TB drugs for treatment of drug-resistant forms of TB.”
BMC held the first meeting of the corporate hospitals in March this year to start DR-TB centres in private hospitals.
“To meet the Centre’s End Tuberculosis by 2025 target, we have appealed to the major corporate hospitals to partner with us. There have been a series of meetings but only SevenHills Hospital in Marol and KDAH have come forward. We hope to sign the MoU soon to set an example for the rest,” said Dr Varsha Puri, Mumbai TB officer.
According to a BMC health official, apart from the DR-TB centre, the BMC has also asked if the hospital can give a ward or two beds dedicated to TB patients. “
“For our TB patients, we need hospitals where diagnostic services like CT Scan/MRI are under one roof. It is seen that private hospitals do not admit TB patients, especially drug-resistant TB. We are appealing to them to change their approach towards TB after the Covid-19 pandemic where in compulsion, they did admit Covid-19 patients and dedicated beds. Covid-19 too is an airborne infectious disease. Many corporate hospitals now have isolation beds, air flow control systems, using heap-filters etc. to stop cross infections,” said the official, who added with the city having the country’s highest TB burden, the collaboration is much needed to meet the Centre’s goal to end TB by 2025.
As per the BMC’s TB data, the city recorded 65556 new cases in 2022, the highest in the last five years. In 2021, the city had registered 58221 new TB cases.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, in 2018, Mumbai had reported 53,828 cases, which surged to 60,387 in 2019. The TB cases fell only in 2020 (only 43244 new cases) because many refrained from visiting hospitals and healthcare machinery was busy tackling the pandemic.
BMC said PD Hinduja Hospital-Mahim and BJ Wadia Children’ hospital- Parel are the only hospitals working with the corporation.
While private Dr-TB is presently functional in PD Hinduja Hospital and KJ Somaiya Hospital, Dr Yatin Dholakia, secretary of Maharashtra State Anti-TB Association said having more DR-TB centres in private hospitals will improve access to DR-TB treatment.
“It is a known fact that the majority of TB patients prefer going to a private physician/hospital. Drugs like Bedaquiline and Delamanid are only available in the public health system. Private chemists can’t stock them. Private doctors have to refer their DR-TB cases to the public system for management. There are many private physicians who are not referring the DR-TB patients to public centres for treatment,” he said.
Dr Dholakia added that having more private centres will increase the DR-TB treatment ambit. “Many patients do not want to come to public TB centres due to long waits etc. For them, having more DR-TB centres in private hospitals will be a boon,” he said.
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