Chandigarh mulls mother, child hospital on vacant land

Chandigarh, September 14

To utilise the land allotted for a trauma centre of the GMCH-32, the UT Health Secretary has decided that part of the land may be used for building an exclusive mother and child hospital with a capacity of around 500 beds.

The land had remained unused for the past 15 years. The 10-acre piece of land was allotted to the GMCH-32 in Sector 53 more than 15 years ago for a regional trauma centre.

The Director Principal, GMCH-32, Jasbinder Kaur, said a detailed project report was prepared in consultation with Dr (Prof) MC Misra, former Director AIIMS, as an external expert. It was sent to the Centre by the then Adviser to the Administration, Chandigarh, for approval. She said as per a verbal discussion with the predecessor Director, it had been kept pending till further orders, and there had been no progress in the matter for the past about five years.

The project was proposed as there was a need for setting up a regional trauma centre on the allotted land in Sector 53. Considering no such centre was available in the region, it was decided that it should be a state-of-the-art facility where the situations such as natural/manmade disasters, accidents and other major sudden medical needs can be taken care of

The Secretary, Health, said considering the load on the existing mother and child facilities in UT, they might think of utilising part of the unused land for constructing an exclusive mother and child hospital.

Dr Jasbinder Kaur stated the land was allotted for the medical college and hospital and should be utilised for that very purpose.

The Chief Architect suggested the allotted land should be utilised for best possible purposes by the Health Department. In case the GMCH-32 needs additional land with proper justification, then land can be provided to it at a later stage, he added.

500-bed hospital proposed

The UT Health Secretary has decided that part of the land may be used for building an exclusive mother and child hospital with a capacity of around 500 beds.