E-Paper
Construction of emergency-cum-trauma centre at Chandigarh’s GMCH to begin this month
With the UT engineering department allotting the tender to a city-based firm, the construction of a new emergency-cum-trauma centre at the Government Medical College
With the UT engineering department allotting the tender to a city-based firm, the construction of a new emergency-cum-trauma centre at the Government Medical College and Hospital in Sector 32 will start within this month.
The 280-bed facility spread over 1.4 lakh square feet will come up at a cost of around ₹50 crore in place of the existing covered parking block in front of Block A. In addition to the construction costs, the allocated funds include the cost of new medical machines, too.
“During construction, an alternative route to the existing emergency ward will be provided so that patients and doctors are not inconvenienced. The target is to complete construction within 18 months,” said a senior UT official.
The creation of the new facility, an exercise pending for at least a decade, will be a major upgrade for GMCH. Earlier, the plan was to make a separate trauma centre in Sector 53, which was dropped, giving way to a composite facility comprising an emergency and trauma centre.
Since its inception in 1996-97, GMCH-32 has been catering to patients from Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and several other, farther states. At any given point, there are at least 350 patients admitted in the emergency.
Facilities on the cards
The new building will have five operation theatres (OT) and one minor OT.
A 24-bed state-of-the-art intensive care unit (ICU), a 64-bed ward for stable patients, two isolation wards with 33 beds and a 47-bed ambulatory care ward are also on the anvil. There will be space for around 400 attendants of patients at two levels.
Around 87,000 square feet will be devoted to operations, with a two-level basement of around 55,000 square feet.
The facility will have space for wheelchairs, stretchers, ambulances, entrance-exit, waiting area, medical officer/duty doctor/nurse rooms, medicine store, mortuary, laboratory, X-ray room, plaster room, ramps and lifts.
