JNMC of AMU: Victim of shameful discrimination of Central Govt.

RML with 600 beds gets Rs 322 Cr; JNMC of AMU with 1150 beds gets just Rs 2 Cr

By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,

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New Delhi: What is it if not grave shameful discrimination and apathy of Central Government towards minorities and their institutions? Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital in the heart of the National Capital has only 600 beds but it got Rs 283 Crores as annual fund from the central government for the year 2010-11. The hospital got a hike of 12% for the next financial year 2011-12 and got Rs 322 Crores. Now take the case of Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College & Hospital (JNMC) of Aligarh Muslim University. Despite having twice the number of beds (1150) compared to RML, yet JNMC got just Rs 2 Crores in the corresponding periods. This is not all.

Grave Apathy
JNMC is one of the Central Government funded hospitals in the country. But compared to other hospitals it is the victim of state neglect for years. It is not that it is a dead hospital and patients are not visiting and so the government is not taking interest and left it to die natural death. No, JNMC in fact is the busiest hospital in, rather health backbone of Western Uttar Pradesh. Every year four to five lakh patients visit the hospital.

Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College Hospital, AMU

JNMC, which is working in the Faculty of AMU since 1962, has today 1150 beds and functions as secondary referral hospital. It provides tertiary level care to poor patients (85% underserved population) not only from Aligarh but adjoining districts like Rampur, Moradabad, Bareilly due to lack of any government Medical College in Western Uttar Pradesh. Every year in last three years, 4-5 lakh patients have visited the hospital. Just have a look at the table below:

Letter from UGC

Despite the dependence of lakhs of poor people on JNMC hospital of AMU, the central government provides just Rs 2 Crore and 10 lakh as annual budget for maintenance. JNMC comes under University Grants Commission. And more shockingly, this amount is just stationary since 2005 while price of every commodity has skyrocketed in these years. The annual budget from UGC to JNMC since 2005-06 till date is Rs 2.10 Crore, that is just Rs 54.79/day/patient which is highly insufficient to provide medicine, linen, food, other facilities to the patients. A sharp increase in inflation and steep rise in the cost of essential commodities as well as services, it seems, have not at all bothered the central government as if JNMC or people benefiting from it are not part of India.

But other central government hospitals under the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MOHFW) are not in such pathetic condition. They are getting a minimum of Rs 250 to Rs 300/day/patient. Have a look at the table below.

Brief History of JNMC
The idea of having a medical college and hospital in Aligarh Muslim University was first conceived by Dr. Ziauddin Ahmed, Vice Chancellor of the University in the early 1940s. On 2nd October 1962, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College was declared open by Prof. Hadi Hasan. The medical college was recognized by the MCI (Medical Council of India) in the year 1969. In the same year under the chairmanship of the Secretary, Ministry of Education, government agreed to fund it. Till 1999, JNMC had 150 beds. At present it is a major tertiary care hospital with 1150 beds. The hospital covers almost 12 Western UP districts which have worst health care facilities.

Politicians visit, pay lip service and forget
Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi visited AMU in December 2009. The authorities of JNMC apprised him of the pathetic situation of the hospital. One month later, in January 2010, Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad visited the hospital. Dr. M. Ashraf Malik, Principal and Chief Medical Superintendent of JNMC apprised the minister of the conditions and the paucity of fund and rush of poor people to the hospital.

Dr. Malik wrote a letter to the VC of AMU (The letter has been accessed through RTI by P. Mohammad, Founder of the NGO Quality Governance Foundation of India). In the letter, Dr. Malik said the minister “agreed in principle to provide sufficient amount of money from Ministry of Health through Ministry of Human Resource Development. He constituted a team under BK Prasad, IAS, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health.”

Where is Health Ministry’s report on JNMC?
A month after the visit of Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, a high-level team from the Union Ministry of Health visited JNMC. The team headed by Mr. BK Prasad, IAS, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health, visited the JNMC on 15th Feb. 2010. Principal of the college, Dr. M. Ashraf Malik apprised the team of the problems of the hospital. The team took the round of various wards and facilities which are not in good shape and also not covered under Prime Minister’s Health Security Program. He told them that HRD is giving only Rs 2.10 Cr per annum to run the hospital with 1050 beds. They decided that hospital needs one time grant of at least 100 Crore for complete renovation of old building and the maintenance of renovated old building will require annual grant which will be decided by the ministry.

On 17th Feb. 2010, principal of JNMC wrote a letter to the VC (Letter accessed through RTI by P. Mohammad) wherein he said: The Joint Secretary assured that he will recommend to the Minister that JNMC should be taken up by the Ministry of Health for the purpose of sanction of annual grant. The college grants (pay of teachers, residents, employees etc will be given by MHRD. The above pattern is being followed in Delhi University affiliated University of College of Medical Sciences (UCMS). UCMS hospital is getting a budget of Rs 50 Cr per annum from the ministry of health for less than thousand of beds.

The letter further said: “The Joint Secretary noted all the points and promised he will submit the report to the Minister as early as possible.”
More than two years have passed since the visit of the joint secretary, but there is no trace of his report. In May 2012 JNMC is where it was in February 2010. Not a single rupee has been increased in annual fund of the hospita.

Again on 31st August 2010, Dr. Ashraf Malik, principal of JNMC wrote a letter to the VC apprising him of all situation. He told him that number of patients is increasing fast and prices of commodities are also going up but the annual budget is just stationary. He reminded him of the assurance of health minister that his ministry will provide sufficient amount of money through MHRD. He also recalled the visit of his ministry’s team to the hospital. The principal urged the VC to take up the issue with UGC to get grant from Ministry of Health, and to increase the total grant for the hospital.

UGC admits budget for JNMC is inadequate, but takes no action
In November 2010 UGC admitted that the same annual fund which JNMC is getting since 2005 is very inadequate as inflation has gone up and more and more people are flocking to the hospital. In 2005, annual grant per bed was increased from Rs 12000 to Rs 20000 and that was the last increase.

In her letter dated 19th November 2010, Dr. Mrs. Renu Batra, Joint Secretary, University Grants Commission said: UGC is aware that the increase was approved in 2005-06, but since then prices of drugs and non-drugs item have gone up considerably and the number of indoor and outdoor patients have increased from 345516 to 471378.

The UGC admitted that “in recent years due to epidemics like malaria, dengue and viral fever there was phenomenal increases in patients to JNMC and even 100% bed occupancy during last week of Oct 2010. The number of admitted patients to whom food, drugs and other facilities are to be provided had reached to 735 per day, consequently the present budget allocation of Rs 210 lakh per annum becomes inadequate to meet the expenditure on account of medicine, dressing materials, instruments, expenses and other requirements of hospital.”

The JNMC principal had asked UGC to increase the amount Rs 100000 per bed per annum from current Rs 20000 as other central govt hospitals under ministry of health are getting Rs 250 to Rs 300 per day per patient while JNMC is getting just Rs 54.79/day/patient.

The UGC officer asked the principal to move UGC with the request of Rs 1 lakh per bed per annum for 1050 beds.

JNMC wrote to UGC in 2010, but no response yet
With great hope Dr. M. Ashraf Malik, Principal of JNMC, wrote a letter to HRD Minister Kapil Sibal the college urging him to increase the annual grant with the support of health ministry.

“JNMC is only tertiary care centre of 8 districts of Western UP including Rampur, Moradabad, Bareilly, lakhs of people are coming every year, price is rising but UGC budget for JNMC has been stationary since 2005 at Rs 2.10 lakh, i.e. Rs. 54.79/day/patient which is grossly insufficient to provide bare minimum medical facilities to the patients. Other hospitals under CGHS and other tertiary care hospitals in the country are getting a minimum grant of Rs 300/day/patient.”

He told him that Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on visiting JNMC had assured to provide sufficient fund from his ministry to JNMC through HRD.
“I request you to take up the matter with Ghulam Nabi Azad for annual grant from MOHFW to sanction a minimum recurring grant of Rs 300/be/day, a mere Rs 11.5 Cr to MHRD so that UGC can provide this money for the care of poor patients.”

A copy of the letter was also sent to Rahul Gandhi and Ghulam Nabi Azad. One and half years have since passed but JNMC has got no response.