MUMBAI: The civic administration will begin full-scale dismantling of jumbo field hospitals as Covid-19 cases are low in the city after last month's surge. With the exception of the jumbo facility on Somaiya hospital grounds in Sion, that wasn't operationalised, BMC has either begun or is in the process of starting dismantling of jumbos which helped handle the huge number of Covid patients in the first and second waves in 2020 and 2021 respectively.
A senior BMC official said the entire process will take almost two months. "Even if physical dismantling is completed now, it would take us a month to finish administrative formalities like payments, distributing machinery and equipment and other audits," said the senior official.
Although jumbo hospitals were set up to handle 1,000 to 2,000 patients, very few patients were sent to these centres in the third wave in January and the surge in June. Seven Hills Hospital in Andheri, with over 1,000 beds, has emerged as the main Covid hospital in the city.
"At present, we have Covid facilities at Seven Hills Hospital, Kasturba Hospital and some peripheral hospitals," said a civic official. The highest number of hospitalised patients in June was around 600. "These numbers can be handled by Seven Hills Hospital and others," said a BMC doctor.
Dr Pradeep Angre, dean of the jumbo hospital in Mulund, said dismantling process should start in a few days. "All our equipment will be distributed between various civic hospitals,'' he said. Already, this centre has been reduced to half its size in an earlier dismantling process.
Dr Rajesh Dere, dean of the BKC field hospital, said he has 12 patients currently. The BKC jumbo was built with a capacity of 2,400 beds. "At the moment, we have been operating only four wards as per the requirements,'' he said.
Although the BKC centre has been a popular vaccination centre and was the treatment hub in the earlier waves, the land is needed for the bullet train project. Also, BMC higher-ups feel there are enough vaccination centres currently.
