Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is currently struggling to find contractors to operate 153 ICU beds across its 12 suburban hospitals. Due to the lack of bidders, the civic body has had to extend the tender deadline four times.

The main reason cited for contractors’ reluctance is the steep rise in penalty clauses introduced in the tender, where the penalty amount has been increased by 100 times.

BMC has decided to outsource the management of 153 ICU beds in its 12 suburban hospitals to private operators. Accordingly, a tender was issued on July 25. In the first round, only one company showed interest. Since there was just one bidder, BMC extended the deadline. However, no further interest was shown by contractors, forcing the civic body to extend the tender date four times within just two months.

In the new tender, the BMC has increased the penalty amount by 100 percent. Earlier, if a doctor was absent in a shift, the contractor not only faced salary deductions but also had to pay a fine of Rs 1,000. Now, the fine has been raised to Rs 10,000 per shift. If the same mistake occurs more than 10 times, the penalty will further increase to Rs 1 lakh per shift.

Under a two-year contract, the BMC plans to spend Rs 3,367 per ICU bed per day. For operating 153 ICU beds in 12 suburban hospitals with the help of specialists, the administration will incur a total expenditure of Rs 33 crore 5 lakh 5 thousand 200.

Earlier, the Health Department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) instructed four peripheral hospitals to manage their Medical Intensive Care Units (MICU) and Surgical Intensive Care Units (SICU) with internal resources after the outsourcing contract expired on August 30, despite being granted an extension.

A senior health department official confirmed that the ICU beds reserved at these hospitals will now be operated by the hospital staff themselves.

According to a senior civic official, this is only a temporary measure, as the process of appointing a new contractor is expected to be completed within the next one to two months.

However, several health experts, including doctors from BMC-run hospitals, have questioned the need for outsourcing ICU services altogether.

“For the last two weeks, hospitals have been managing ICU beds with their own resources. This can continue, and there is no real need to outsource them,” said a doctor on condition of anonymity.

Mumbai: Several staff members of the SIWS Junior College, Wadala, staged a demonstration in front of the institution’s gate on Wednesday demanding action against the vice-principal Sheela Krishnan.

A memorandum with signatures of 30 staffers has been submitted to the principal. Among other things, the vice-principal has been accused of body-shaming a woman and passing comments against a male staff member, which resulted in ten teachers submitting a complaint against her.

Instead of dealing with the issue, the vice-principal has allegedly been targeting the ten teachers concerned.

The signatories also pointed to an incident last year when seats were surrendered during FYJC admissions. The vice-principal reportedly blamed the teachers for the same and threatened action against them.

Also, Hindi as an option has been removed from the admission form and Marathi has been added in its place which could reduce admissions. The signatories stated that they have lost confidence in the vice-principal and demanded her removal.

Akola: A 50-year-old man sustained injuries after he slipped while alighting a train and got trapped under it in Maharashtra’s Akola district, the Railway Police said on Tuesday.

The incident occurred at the Murtijapur railway station around 4.20 pm on Monday, an official said.

Mushtaq Khan Moin Khan was alighting from the Pune-Amravati train on platform no. 2 when he lost his footing, slipped and got trapped under the train, he said.

The official said the Railway Police had to extricate the injured passenger with the help of a local rescue team, and a gas cutter was used to remove the footboard of the train and pull him out safely.

Khan suffered serious injuries to his legs and was rushed to a local government hospital, where he is undergoing treatment, he added.