Mumbai: With a Rs-100-crore grant from the Centre for its premier JJ Hospital, the state government is getting a tad ambitious. It has got a third party to audit the hospital’s services with the aim of applying for the coveted NABH mark in near future.

NABH (National Accreditation Board of Hospitals) is an accreditation mechanism devised by the central government’s Quality Council of India. The mark shows that the hospital maintains a certain standard of quality in patient care and safety.

“We were asked to prepare an audit for the JJ Hospital with NABH standards in mind while the medical college’s audit has been done for the ISO certification,’’ said Dr Vivek Desai of HOSMAC, a healthcare consultancy firm based in Goregaon. Dr B M Subnis, dean of JJ Hospital, told TOI that the audit would help upgrade infrastructure most efficiently. The Rs 100 crore that the Centre will give JJ Hospital (along with Rs 20 crore put in by the state government) can thus be used most effectively, it is felt. “We are also considering setting up a new seven- or 10-storey building,’’ Dr Subnis said.

The audit is complete, with the firm giving the finishing touches to the report. According to sources in Mantralaya, a presentation on the audit findings and recommendations will be made to Dilip Walse-Patil, the minister in charge of medical education, within a fortnight. What makes the state government’s NABH dream ambitious is the fact that only 19 hospitals have secured it while 56 have applied for it. Most of these hospitals hail from the private sector.

While both the hospital and the consultancy firm refused to elaborate on the audit’s findings, sources said the thrust would be on setting up new civil infrastructure for the hospital. New machines such as MRIs and gamma cameras measure several tonnes and cannot be accommodated in the existing heritage building, they said.

The audit has reportedly also pointed out the need to pool in technology so that patients of all the four government hospitals—JJ, GT, Cama and St George’s—can benefit. “There is a radiotherapy facility at Cama Hospital that is used only for female patients. There is an MRI machine only in JJ Hospital. If there is better coordination and use of these high-tech machines, it will benefit a larger group of patients,’’ they added.