Bombay Parsi Punchayet okays Parsi General Hospital deal that kicked up row

The Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) has endorsed the tie-up between B D Petit Parsee General hospital and Gurgaon-based Medanta chain of hospitals.

As reported by TOI last November, a Hong Kong-based Parsi businessman is donating Rs 150 crore to rescue the financially-ailing hospital at Breach Candy, which is meant exclusively for Parsi patients. However, several members of the community had opposed the deal, stating it was a “sell-out” and that the prime property would slip out of the community’s control.

On January 2, BPP trustees and the management of the hospital met and approved the project. The trustees “unequivocally, firmly and wholeheartedly support the new secular hospital project…,” said a joint press release on Friday.

Some messages on social media criticized the deal. “The Hong Kong donor said he will give Rs 150 crore in future to the hospital only if the Rs 2,000 crore property is handed over to Medanta now. Under the guise of management contract, the Parsi community has been purposefully kept in the dark about the terms of contract. In spite of three written requests sent to the trustees, they are refusing to make the agreement public and trying to alienate valuable trust property,” said a post.

The donation will be used to build a new 15-storey cosmopolitan hospital within the sprawling complex and handed over to Medanta. Medanta, in turn, will cross-subsidise medical facilities for Parsi patients and pay an annual fee to the hospital.