Major upgrade, revamp of ESIC hospital begins at Rs 8.2 crore

Tribune News Service

Nitin Jain

Ludhiana, February 12

In a major development, the ESI Corporation (ESIC) Model Hospital here is in for a major upgrade and revamp.

For the purpose, the Union Government has begun the work at the cost of Rs 8.2 crore.

The development assumes significance as it will be the first-ever major advancement and overhaul of the ailing health facility for employees, especially industrial workers, since its inception in 1969.

Besides, the proposal to add 200 more beds and develop the ESIC hospital as the state-of-the-art facility with 500-bed capacity is also under active consideration of the Centre.

An announcement to this effect was made by ESIC Director General (DG) Rajendra Kumar while acceding to the demand raised by Rajya Sabha MP from Ludhiana Sanjeev Arora.

This followed a series of meetings held between Arora and Union Minister of Labour and Employment Bhupender Yadav during the past over a year.

The minister had also held a meeting of officials from his ministry and the state government in Chandigarh recently to discuss and finalise the plan to establish six new ESIC Hospitals in the state, including another one in Ludhiana district, besides other demands of Punjab pertaining to the welfare of labour and employees.

The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) member in the Upper House of Parliament from Punjab has impressed upon Yadav that the Ludhiana ESIC hospital with 262-bed capacity was not only lacking beds but also other facilities to provide treatment and medical facilities to almost 12 lakh workers employed in various establishments covered under the ESI Corporation, which runs the lone hospital in the state’s biggest and largest district, in terms of area and population, since its inception in 1969.

Arora told The Tribune on Monday that ESIC DG Rajendra Kumar has conveyed to him that the work to upgrade and revamp the ESIC had been initiated at the cost of Rs 819.51-lakh.

He said the renovation of the intensive care unit (ICU) had been awarded at the cost of Rs 73.03 lakh, firefighting work at Rs 467.76 lakh, extension on medical gas pipeline at Rs 49.73 lakh, and provision of 240 TR central air conditioned (AC) plant has been initiated at the cost of Rs 228.99 lakh.

“The proposal for expansion of the ESIC hospital from 300 beds to 500 beds is also under consideration,” Arora said while quoting the ESIC DG’s communication.

He reiterated that Yadav had already promised him to almost double the capacity of the Ludhiana hospital and provide state-of-the-art facilities here during a meeting with him in New Delhi last year.

“He has promised to upgrade the Ludhiana ESIC hospital to the state-of-the-art facility and increase its bed capacity to 500,” the MP said.

Divulging the proposed upgrade plan and outcome of the survey conducted to this effect, Arora said the hospital was spread over 10.3 acres and at present, was catering to 4.3 lakh insured persons.

“The hospital building was constructed in two parts. The old block, in which the administrative block and OPD is running, had been declared unsafe as per the structural audit report conducted by the NIT, Jalandhar. However, during a site visit by the Chief Engineer, it has been observed that the old building was in a good condition and there were no signs of any distress/ deterioration of the building,” he said.

To get the second opinion from another agency/ institute, the proposal for fresh structural audit has been sent to the IIT, Roorkee, and the IIT, Ropar.

The Rajya Sabha MP said the new hospital building block was safe as per the structural audit report and all wards, emergency, ICU, operation theatre, labour room, laundry and medical store were running from there.

“Since as per the local building by-laws, the whole land is occupied and there is no scope for new construction on the land, the only way of expansion is possible through vertical expansion or demolition of any existing building,” Arora said.

He said the proposal for structural audit for old and hostel block buildings had been forwarded to three IITs — Roorkee IIT, Ropar IIT and Delhi IIT.

“The quotation of the IIT, Delhi, was found lowest and the work had been awarded. However, consent for advance payment of 40 per cent in place of 100 per cent has been sought from the IIT Delhi,” he added.

Centre affirmative to demands: MP

The Rajya Sabha MP said the Union Minister was affirmative to demands raised by him and assured to take care of all issues shortly.

Arora apprised Yadav that the lone ESIC Model Hospital in Ludhiana was established in 1969 when the number of workers was not even 10 per cent of the present workforce in the district. “Besides progressing in Ludhiana, the industry has also spread to adjoining areas of Khanna, Sahnewal and Samrala, following which there is a dire need to have another ESIC Hospital between Khanna and Sahnewal on the NH-44 or nearby area so that industrial workers and their dependents can be catered to in a better way,” he demanded while hoping that the new hospital, if established, will also be able to cater to the industry of Mandi Gobindgarh and Fatehgarh Sahib districts.

On the state front, the MP told the minister that a proposal from the state government to set up six new ESIC Hospitals in the state was pending with the Centre. “Punjab is in dire need of more ESIC hospitals as the state has a single bed for 4,100 insured workers under the ESIC, which is almost double the national average of one bed for 2,300 insured workers,” he said.

The state government had proposed to set up ESIC Hospitals at six locations – Doraha in Ludhiana, Sector 66 in Mohali, Lalru in Mohali, Rajpura in Patiala, Malerkotla, and Bathinda.

The minister said the setting up of ESIC hospitals was an ongoing process and was based on the number of insured persons in an area in accordance with the norms of the ESIC.

The state-wise status of beds at hospitals run by the ESIC showed that Punjab has 12,16,430 workers insured under the ESIC for whom there were 300 sanctioned beds in the ESIC hospitals, which work out to be 4,055 workers per ESIC hospital bed. It was almost 74.63 per cent more than the national average of 2,322 workers per ESIC hospital bed.

State’s ESI worker load high

The ESIC worker load in the state was almost 75 per cent more than the national average.

Fifth in country

Punjab was ranked fifth in the country when it comes to worker load per ESI hospital bed. While Uttarakhand has the maximum worker load of 6,046 per bed, Maharashtra stood second with 5,701 workers per bed. Tamil Nadu ranked third with 5,477 workers per bed while Odisha was placed fourth with 4,237 workers per bed.

Min load in Delhi

Delhi has the country’s minimum worker load per bed of 633, followed by Bihar 835, J&K 1,230, Chandigarh 1,302, Telangana 1,360, Jharkhand 1,419, Rajasthan 1,713, Kerala 1,891, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura, Manipur, Mizoram, and Arunachal Pradesh 2,000, Karnataka 2,163, UP 2,366, Haryana 2,442, Chhattisgarh 2,534, Gujarat 2,615, West Bengal 2,824, MP 3,223 and HP 3,462.

How it works

The Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) is a statutory body under the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment, which provides social security to workforce and dependent family members covered under the ESI Act, 1948, in the form of cashless medical benefits as well as cash benefits in the event of sickness, maternity and employment injury.

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