Should the admission and fatality data of the hospitals made available to the public?

Corporator Pravin Chheda has claimed that during the past 13 years, an average of 16 patients admitted to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) run Rajawadi Hospital have lost their lives everyday. He claimed that as per the reply to an application filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the civic-run Rajawadi Hospital at Ghatkorar, Mumbai saw a total of 55.75 lakh people admissions out of which 76,663 lost their lives.

During the corresponding period, the other BMC run hospitals witnessed a much lower fatality rate.

·         Sion hospital treated 1.92 crore patients out of which 63,373 died which catapults into an average of nearly13 deaths daily.

·         Nair hospital admitted 33 lakh patients out of which 29,650 expired which transforms into an average of nearly deaths daily.

The corporator has demanded that to bring down the high mortality rate in the hospital:

·         the vacant posts should be filled up,

·         proper equipment should be procured and maintained, and

·         the hospital should be managed in a better manner by improving the quality of service.

The additional municipal commissioner Sanjay Deshmukh reportedly said that he would need to check the veracity of figures. The high death rate points to the need for making the fatality data available to the public on a suo-motu basis for all hospitals of the country.