Earlier, due to increasing number of coronavirus cases in the city, the hospitals in Mumbai were facing difficulty with treating non-coronavirus related patients. It was reported that many cancer patients and their relatives, from Tata Memorial hospital, Wadia hospital and KEM hospital, were shifted under the Hindmata flyover in Lower Parel.
This decision was taken by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) with an aim to solve overcrowding inside the hospital, owing to the number of COVID-19 patients.
However, now the civic body has stated that these patients and their relatives will no longer be allowed to stay under the bridge. The corporation has decided to put a fence under this bridge and ban the entry for civilians. The corporation will spend ₹5.66 crores for all the works related to fencing.
The BMC has been under the soup since the photos and videos of patients staying under the bridge went viral across the social media. Hence, this proposal was put forward in the proceedings of this month's General Assembly.
Earlier, Mumbai Live exclusively reported about the death of one of the patients who was suffering cancer and was staying under the Hindmata bridge.
The Hindmata flyover has almost become like a post-operative ward of a hospital. Patients operated for oral cancer take their feeds using a nasal tube even as cars, trucks, and buses trundle by.
The patients, who residents of different cities and had visited the hospital, were forced to stay under the bridge due to unavailability of accommodation in the hospital and lack of money to rent a space anywhere else.
Later, the municipal corporation had made temporary arrangements for them at two dharamshalas – one in Dadar and the other attached to KEM hospital in Parel. There, they were now not only sharing clean dormitories and washrooms, but also have access to free meals.
And there was a long waiting list for free accommodation, some arranged by the hospital and others by charitable organisations not all patient could get an accommodation.
India saw 14.5 lakh new cases of cancer and 7,36,000 deaths in 2016. These numbers are expected to increase to 17.3 lakh in 2030 with 8,80,000 deaths by 2020, according to the data from the National Cancer Registry Programme of the Indian Council of Medical Research.
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