After 4 years, Jhajjar PHC to be upgraded to civil hospital

Ravinder Saini

Tribune News Service

Jhajjar, July 31

A double-storey air-conditioned building in the district’s Matanhail village will finally be used for the purpose, for which it was built around four years ago — a 50-bed civil hospital.

At present, a Primary Health Centre (PHC) is operational from the building, the foundation stone of which was laid by then MP Deepender Hooda in 2014.

The Health Department has approved a proposal to upgrade the PHC to the civil hospital. For this, it has given nod to 49 regular posts, including doctors and nurses, 14 outsourced posts of Class IV employees, and four data entry operators.

Jhajjar Power Limited had, in 2017, built the building under the corporate social responsibility keeping in view the technical requirements of a 50-bed hospital. It is equipped with X-ray machines and other medical equipment used in the operation theatre and laboratory. But the equipment has been lying unused since 2017.

Sources say instead of setting up the civil hospital in the building, the local authorities shifted its PHC there.

Local Congress MLA Geeta Bhukkal had raised the matter before the local administration as well as in the Vidhan Sabha, taking the plea that the building had been designed as a hospital.

“For the optimum utilisation of the building and equipment, the local authorities were forced to start the civil hospital there,” the sources say.

Civil Surgeon Dr Sanjay Dahiya said, “The 50-bed hospital will prove a boon for the Matanhail area, as residents of nearby villages will no longer have to visit Jhajjar or other places for the treatment of minor ailments.”