The Bombay High Court was today informed that the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) has initiated process to acquire four heart-lung machines for the Paediatric Cardiac Surgery department in civic run hospitals.
A division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice M S Sanklecha was hearing a suo moto public interest litigation following news reports about the ordeal undergone by children waiting for cardiovascular surgery.
Over 700 children are waiting to be operated upon. About 20 children died since January 2012 without being operated in the absence of the necessary machines.
As of now, there is only one such heart-lung machine at KEM hospital. The machine, a critical piece of equipment which takes over the functions of the heart when the organ is removed from a patient's body during open-heart surgeries, manages to carry out only one or two surgeries a day, leading to waiting periods extending up to two years.
Senior counsel Milind Sathe, appearing for the Corporation, today told the court that the process has been initiated to acquire four new machines which will be delivered within six weeks.
"Two machines will be for KEM hospital and one each for Sion and Nair hospital. A separate ward with 11 beds and an operating room has also been marked inside the KEM hospital to treat children suffering from this illness," Sathe told the court.
The bench directed the civic body to state all these details in an affidavit next week.
While an open-heart surgery at KEM costs Rs 60,000, it sets one back by upwards of Rs 3 lakh in a private hospital. Each heart-lung machine costs over Rs 1 crore.
