Heart surgeries paused at Nair Hospital, Mumbai, due to unpaid vendor bills; BMC says payments underway | Representative Image
Mumbai: Heart surgeries at BMC-run BYL Nair Hospital and Medical College in Mumbai Central have been suspended for the past ten days due to a halt in the supply of essential surgical materials. The issue arose after vendors stopped delivering supplies because of unpaid bills. Families of patients admitted to the hospital are now worried that delays caused by this issue could have dire consequences for their loved ones.
The Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery (CVTS) department at Nair Hospital is well-known for treating heart-related ailments and performing life-saving surgeries. Patients with heart attacks often require procedures like angioplasty, bypass surgery, valve replacement, or thoracic aortic aneurysm repair. However, surgeries have come to a standstill over the past several days.
“We have been streamlining the process, and the clearing of payments started this week. However, the vendors are insisting that they will not resume supplies until they receive a substantial amount,” said a BMC official from Nair Hospital. The official added that in the CVTS department, only open-heart surgeries and valve-related surgeries are on hold, and they are trying their best to resume services at the earliest.
According to hospital sources, the CVTS department informed the hospital dean in a letter dated December 4 that vendors had stopped supplying essential items like oxygenators due to unpaid bills. Without these materials, no heart surgeries can be performed. The department requested permission to refer patients to other BMC hospitals.
An employee at the hospital criticized the situation, saying, “Poor patients come to BMC hospitals hoping for solutions to their problems. It’s shameful that such a large hospital has to shut down its operations due to unpaid bills. If any untoward incident occurs with a patient, the BMC administration will be held accountable.”
Earlier in March, the department had to stop surgeries due to pending bills. At the time, the dean ordered CVTS surgeries to be referred to other hospitals.
“This has been a recurring problem since last December. It was first flagged to the dean last year when vendors expressed reluctance to supply surgery-related materials due to a backlog of pending bills for various surgeries conducted under government schemes,” said a senior official from Nair Hospital.
Another official noted that over the past year, delays in clearing vendor bills at Nair Hospital have affected the functioning of not just the CVTS department but also others, such as ophthalmology, cardiology, and orthopaedics.
“We are repeatedly seeing delays in payments to food vendors and laundry supply vendors as well. The payment of vendors is becoming a serious issue that higher authorities need to resolve at the earliest,” said a doctor.
