Cooper Medical College and Hospital in Vile Parle is facing acute shortage of doctors and several departments have been functioning without department heads.
The hospital has been functioning with less than half of its sanctioned strength of doctors and other medical staff.
There is a provision for 208 doctors, including teaching staff, at the medical college and hospital. At present, 138 seats for doctors are lying vacant. The issue came up during the civic standing committee meeting on Wednesday after proposals for food supply to the Lokmanya Tilak Hospital in Sion, and recruitment to fill 16 posts in the Hindu Hriday Samrat Balasaheb Thackeray Medical College in Vile Parle were tabled.
"The hospital does not have enough doctors and other staff. Patients have to go all the way to Sion Hospital for treatment," said Rajul Patel, Shiv Sena member and former Health Committee Chairman.
Pallavi Darade, Additional Municipal Commissioner of BMC said, "The technical issues have been solved, and we have received consent from the medical board to hire doctors," she said.
