The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has announced a Rs 1,500 crore allocation for the upcoming launch of the ‘Chief Minister Health at Doorstep Scheme,’ an initiative aimed at reducing out-of-pocket healthcare expenses and providing over-the-counter consumable services directly to individuals aged 60 and above.

In addition to the initiative, BMC has disclosed that it will allocate Rs 3,500 crore for capital expenditure in the coming months and will hire 3,000 healthcare experts.

The scheme was launched during the inaugural session of the CII Hospital Tech summit, where Sudhakar Shinde, IRS, Additional Municipal Commissioner, BMC, stated, “We analysed the expenditure that the common public has incurred out of drugs consumables and disposables is around 5,000 crores. BMC, leveraging the advantages of quantities and economies of scale, is committed to spending no less than 1,500 crores to provide these benefits. BMC spends 15 per cent of its budget on healthcare, a significantly higher proportion than any other state in the country.”

Shinde further added, “Apart from this, we are expanding our cancer infrastructure, as we are setting up PET scans and various cancer treatment facilities. We are also in the process of setting up our own big cyclotron and initiating proton therapy which will commence in the next couple of months.”

The same Rs 1,500 crore budgeted for the initiative will be used for zero prescription policy, cancer infrastructure, diagnostics and investigations, and upgrading all BMC hospitals to NABH accreditation within the next year.

The relevance of technology adoption in decreasing healthcare costs, as well as the necessity for alignment between the public and private sectors on health data and registry development, was underlined by N Nawin Sona, Principal Secretary, Public Health Department, Government of Maharashtra. He also stated that Maharashtra’s Digital Health Mission is now underway, and that the government is eager to engage with the private sector to encourage indigenous solutions.

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