PalV's Kasti
On this page
- Why does the Parsee General Hospital run at a loss?
- How much free treatment does the Parsee General Hospital carry?
- How do donations and corpus funds keep the hospital open?
- Is there enough demand from a small community?
- Why is modern equipment so hard to fund?
- What did the COVID-19 pandemic expose?
- Frequently asked questions
The Parsi-run hospital that publishes enough of its own records to answer this is the B. D. Petit Parsee General Hospital in Mumbai, and those records point to five pressures: costs rising faster than patient income, a large free-care load, dependence on donors, falling admissions from a small and older community, and the price of modern equipment and staff. The most recent annual report extract on its website puts the gross operating deficit at ₹1,499.83 lakh for 2018-19, against ₹1,308.87 lakh a year earlier. Its honorary secretaries wrote that only donations and interest on corpus funds keep it going. Its President put Mumbai's Parsi population at under 40,000. And one Parsi maternity hospital in the city has already shut, DNA reported in 2014.
Why does the Parsee General Hospital run at a loss?
Patient income at the Parsee General Hospital covers only part of what care costs, because so much of that care is free or subsidised. These are the hospital's own audited highlights, in ₹ lakh:
| Item (₹ lakh) | 2017-18 | 2018-19 |
|---|---|---|
| Income from operations | 1,982.26 | 1,994.06 |
| Operating expenditure (incl. gratuity provision and depreciation) | 3,291.12 | 3,493.89 |
| Gross operating deficit | 1,308.87 | 1,499.83 |
| Expenditure charged to the Munsiff Fund | 224.47 | 225.83 |
| Investment income (excluding donations) | 785.35 | 731.07 |
| Operating deficit | 299.05 | 542.93 |
| Donations received | 420.87 | 423.24 |
| Net result | 121.82 surplus | 119.69 deficit |
Over that one year, spending went up by about ₹203 lakh while operating income went up by about ₹12 lakh. The joint honorary secretaries, writing on 19 October 2019, said the gap between the two was "widening" year after year.
Wages are part of that bill. The President's message lists a retrospective wage settlement agreed in May 2019 that added ₹31 lakh to the 2017/18 deficit and ₹117 lakh to the 2018/19 deficit.
How much free treatment does the Parsee General Hospital carry?
Some of it is a legal duty that applies to public charitable hospitals, not only Parsi ones. On 17 August 2006 the Bombay High Court approved a scheme for treating indigent and weaker-section patients under Section 41AA of the Bombay Public Trust Act, 1950, and under it every public charitable hospital must keep an Indigent Patients Fund and credit to it 2% of the gross billing of all other patients, as the High Court recorded in a 2020 order. The Parsee General Hospital says it follows this, with the 2% moved across daily by its billing software and the fund's use reported to the Charity Commissioner every month under Rule 25A of the Bombay Public Trusts Rules, 1951. It also keeps a separate Poor Patient Subsidy Fund for community members whose income is above the court's limits but who are in financial distress. This is general information, not legal advice. Consult a lawyer about any specific trust.
The President's message gives the cost of that care over three years:
| Year | Subsidy on Free and C/D ward patients (₹ lakh) | Free OPD patients a day (average) | Free OPD medicine (₹ lakh) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016/17 | 553.30 | 43 | 35.39 |
| 2017/18 | 669.98 | 41 | 38.63 |
| 2018/19 | 687.89 | 41 | 43.80 |
When a poor patient needs a test the hospital cannot do itself, such as an MRI, it pays the outside centre. In 2018/19 that meant 102 patients and ₹8,10,203. The load has not gone away. For September 2026, the hospital's charity statement lists 313 patients treated free, with care valued at ₹70,26,629.
If you want to know how a patient actually gets onto a free or subsidised bed, that is covered on our Parsi General Hospital page.
How do donations and corpus funds keep the hospital open?
By the hospital's own account, they are what closes the gap. The President's summary shows that even after the Munsiff Fund contribution and interest income, the deficit was ₹611 lakh in 2016/17, ₹331 lakh in 2017/18 and ₹660 lakh in 2018/19. Donations in those years were ₹513 lakh, ₹421 lakh and ₹423 lakh. He concluded that the hospital "continues to be dependent on donations".
The giving reaches well beyond Mumbai. A June 2021 ZAGNY notice, posted by the Zoroastrian Society of Ontario, called that year's appeal its 35th fundraiser for the hospital and said the money was needed for air-conditioning plants serving the COVID-19 ward and the Jokhi wing. The hospital takes donations by card, bank transfer, a separate FCRA account for foreign currency, and cheque, and invites bequests to its Corpus Fund, whose interest pays for charity care.
Is there enough demand from a small community?
Admissions fell over the three years the hospital has published: 2,149 in 2016/17, 1,964 in 2017/18 and 1,861 in 2018/19. Average occupancy of its 173 beds was 63.85%, 58.52% and 59.84%.
The President read the same figures as proof that the hospital is needed. Writing on completing 50 years on its Executive Committee on 1 January 2020, he said Mumbai's community was "estimated at less than 40,000", so close to 2,000 admissions a year meant more than 5% of the community was admitted annually. He added that occupancy was about the same in beds for poor patients and in paying beds, which he took to mean paying patients still chose the hospital. He was responding, he wrote, to "various recent conflicting reports about the relevance" of the hospital. Those reports are not named, and we could not open them.
The community is also older. In a message on the hospital's home page during the pandemic, the President described it as having "a larger number of older people".
Falling demand has already closed one Parsi hospital in the city. DNA's Meher Mirza reported in 2014 that patient numbers at the Parsi Lying-In Hospital on Prescott Road, in Fort, fell once newer hospitals opened and Parsi women chose to give birth there instead, until the trustees had to shut it.
Why is modern equipment so hard to fund?
New machines are another cost that falls on donors. The President's message reports spending of about ₹150 lakh in one year on new and replacement equipment for the operation theatre, ICU, laboratory, radiology and physiotherapy. A later appeal on the donations page gives about ₹182.28 lakh for a financial year. Neither page names the exact year.
Larger plans have been harder. The hospital's CEO, who took up the post in September 2019, wrote that "the New Hospital project fell through" and that super-speciality departments and machines such as CT and MRI demand heavy capital spending and running costs. A notice on the hospital's website records a CT-scan department being inaugurated on 15 November 2021. For paying patients, cashless treatment through insurers' TPAs is listed as "presently held in abeyance".
What did the COVID-19 pandemic expose?
Mainly staffing. In a message posted in May 2020, the President wrote that after the March 2020 lockdown the hospital kept working with only half its staff, because the rest did not report for duty once buses and suburban trains stopped. After a patient tested positive on 26 March 2020, he said, the BMC told the hospital to stop new admissions until 15 April. Admissions and OPD were later curtailed again for lack of manpower.
The same message said the hospital's labour union was "making various demands" during the crisis, and that a government notification of 19 May 2020 required private hospitals to provide 80% of their beds for patients the public hospitals could not take. That is the management's account. We could not find the union's side in any source we were able to open.
The hospital adapted. It set up an isolation ward and a six-bed ICU, and its Navroze 2021 message said it had treated more than 420 Parsis for COVID-19 and had been recognised by the municipal corporation as a vaccination centre from 16 March 2021. How the hospital reached this point over more than a century is told in our Parsi General Hospital history.
Frequently asked questions
Why does the Parsi General Hospital need donations?
Its patient income does not cover its costs. In 2018-19 the B. D. Petit Parsee General Hospital spent ₹3,493.89 lakh on operations and earned ₹1,994.06 lakh from them. Investment income and about ₹423 lakh of donations covered most of the gap, leaving a net deficit of ₹119.69 lakh, according to its annual report extract.
Do Parsi-run hospitals have to treat poor patients free?
Public charitable hospitals covered by a scheme approved by the Bombay High Court on 17 August 2006 must keep an Indigent Patients Fund fed by 2% of other patients' bills. The Parsee General Hospital says it runs such a fund and reports it monthly to the Charity Commissioner. This is general information, not legal advice.
What happened to the Parsi Lying-In Hospital?
According to a DNA report by Meher Mirza in October 2014, patient numbers at the Parsi Lying-In Hospital on Prescott Road, Fort, dwindled after newer hospitals opened and Parsi women chose them instead, and the trustees were forced to close it. The same report said there were plans to turn the building into an orthopaedic hospital.
How many patients does the Parsi General Hospital treat free?
For September 2026, the B. D. Petit Parsee General Hospital reported treating 313 patients free: 56 in-patients and 257 out-patients, all from the indigent and weaker-section categories. It valued that care at ₹70,26,629. The statement, signed by its CEO and CFO, appears under "Extent of Charity" on the hospital's website.
How can I donate to the Parsi General Hospital?
The hospital's Appeal to Donors page takes card payments online, bank transfers, foreign-currency gifts through a separate FCRA account, and cheques sent with Form A or Form B to Bomanji Petit Road, Cumballa Hill, Mumbai 400 036. It also asks supporters to consider a bequest in their will to its Corpus Fund.
Cover image: Photo by RDNE Stock project on Pexels.
