BMC, Seven Hills fail to agree on reservation of beds for poor

The Bombay High Court has been informed that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and multi-speciality hospital Seven Hills Healthcare have failed to arrive at an amicable solution in an ongoing dispute over 20 per cent reservation of beds for poor patients. In June this year, the High Court had appointed FI Rebello, retired Chief Justice of Allahabad HC and former Bombay HC judge, as mediator in the dispute between the two warring parties. [caption id=“attachment_559364” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] However, a division bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and RD Dhanuka was informed earlier this week that the attempt to make both the parties reach a consensus could not materialise. The matter will now be heard by the High Court. The civic body has been at the loggerheads with the hospital management over 20 per cent reservation of beds for ‘poor and needy’ patients. The corporation had issued a notice to the hospital directing them to vacate nearly seven-acre premises allotted to them in suburban Marol for violation of the No Objection Certificate (NOC). The hospital had challenged the notice in the High Court. In February this year the court, while observing that “someone somewhere was trying to stall the smooth functioning of the hospital”, asked the BMC to grant an unconditional NOC to the hospital. However, senior counsel Venkatesh Dhond, appearing for the hospital, told the court that the fresh NOC issued by the civic body had the same conditions as the earlier one. This irked the court which severely castigated the BMC for making a “mockery” of the court order. The hospital had offered to construct a separate wing with 300 beds and hand it over to the corporation as a part of its condition to reserve some beds for the poor patients. PTI