Health minister visits proposed hospital site in Gurugram
Kulwinder Sandhu
Gurugram, July 13
Haryana Health Minister Dr Kamal Gupta visited the site of a proposed 700-bed multi-speciality government hospital in Gurugram on Saturday. He was accompanied by the Director General of the Health Services, Dr RS Poonia.
Stop-gap facility faces space constraint
- The government hospital’s old building in the Civil Lines area was demolished a few years ago, while the land was earmarked for the construction of a new multi-speciality hospital.
- In the meantime, the Health Department was utilising the government hospital in Sector 10 as a stopgap arrangement till the new building was constructed.
- However, patients there were forced to share beds because of the acute shortage of space.
The minister reviewed the 10-storey architectural design of the proposed hospital building and discussed various points regarding the location of emergency services, outpatient departments (OPDs), inpatient wards, specialty units, parking, residential block etc along with the senior officials of the Health Department.
Gupta said the chief minister’s office had cleared the detailed project report and file of the proposed hospital earlier this month. Now, it is lying with the Finance Ministry for final approval, he added.
Initially, the state government had proposed to construct a 300-bed hospital, but it later proposed to enhance its indoor admissions capacity to 700 beds after seeking approval to increase the floor area ratio of the building from the Town and Country Planning Department and the Municipal Corporation.
Although the government was yet to draw a timeline for this project, the minister claimed that the construction work would begin within the next few weeks.
It is reported that the BJP’s local leadership is lobbying hard to get the hospital’s construction work started before the Assembly elections, which are due by October this year.
The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Gurugram district, Dr Virender Yadav, said the health minister had shown keen interest in the construction of the new hospital. “The Minister assured us that he will personally take the initiative to get the mandatory approval from the Finance Ministry,” the CMO said.
He said a multi-speciality hospital in Gurugram was the need of the hour for patients seeking affordable healthcare. “At the old Civil Hospital building in Sector 10, which is the sole government facility in the city, patients are forced to share beds because of the acute shortage of space,” he stated.
Dr Yadav said just like any other multi-speciality or super-speciality hospital, the new facility would have a CT scan and MRI unit, departments of radiology and oncology, specialised sections for nebulisation and immunisation, as well as microbiology, clinical pathology, molecular, biochemistry and haematology units. There would also be a laboratory for blood group serology and a transfusion centre, he added.
The government hospital’s old building in the Civil Lines area was demolished a few years ago, while the land was earmarked for the construction of a new multi-speciality hospital. The Health Department was utilising the government hospital in Sector 10 as a stop-gap arrangement till the new building was constructed.
Meanwhile, the CMO and other local officials of the Health Department were directed to regularly share project updates with the health minister, promptly address any challenges that they might face to avoid delays and continue engaging with stakeholders to ensure that the project was aligned with the community needs.
