A dispute has broken out between trustees of the VS Hospital and remaining members of the hospital board over the number of beds allocated in the hospital. The new hospital Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Institute of Medical Sciences and Research within VS Hospital is set to be inaugurated in January 2019.
Before the inauguration, the chairman of the board Bijal Patel wants to settle the staff and bed allocation in the existing set up. At present, VS Hospital has 1,180 beds and is a multi-speciality hospital. Patel has offered the trustees 500 beds and reduced services to a few specialities such as medicine, gynaecology, surgery, ENT, orthopaedic, paediatric only.
The trustees, however, have opposed the changes. "When the hospital was established, Sardar Patel had mentioned in the MoU, the purpose of the hospital. Most of the patients are from the deprived class, whom the hospital was started with a mission to serve," said Rupa Chinoy, one of the trustees.
"Now with the new establishment, they want to shift most of the services there and, those will be paid. Where will the needy go? We need citizens' support to stop the shift. Let the VS Hospital be run as it has been running for the last 80 years," she said.
The trustees are also opposing the move of the civic body to demolish some portion of the hospital to help road connectivity for the new hospital.
"We have given them the option to run the hospital with 500 beds. The MoU was for 120 beds. We are giving more than what they had donated. We have given them time to think and understand the proposal of two days. We will call the meeting next week and pass the resolution for keeping 500 beds in the VS Hospital," said Bijal Patel, chairman of VS Hospital board.
"In the 500 beds, we have given them bifurcation as well. They can make changes as they wish," she added. Patel also said that they will demolish the extended parts of the old buildings. They will not demolish the heritage structures.
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