Work on Civil Hospital revamp to start

The state and district administrations have given the go-ahead for demolition of the old Civil Hospital building near Sadar Bazar, which has been pending for the

The state and district administrations have given the go-ahead for demolition of the old Civil Hospital building near Sadar Bazar, which has been pending for the last two years due to land issues between the education and health departments.

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Senior officials of the administration and health department on Thursday confirmed that the directorate of school education will transfer two acres of its land to the health department for the expansion of the Civil Hospital building, which is currently spread across five acres.

The decision has been taken after chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, on November 29, inspected the premises of Government Senior Secondary School (Boys), from which the land would be transferred for expansion of the adjoining Civil Hospital. He directed the officials to expedite the process.

“Planning is underway for the new Civil Hospital building. The demolition of the existing building has been approved and a tender has also been issued,” said Amit Khatri, deputy commissioner.

The development follows a meeting among the senior officials of the state, director of school education, district administration, health, education and public works department on Wednesday.

As suggested by the chief minister, a wall has to be constructed between the school and hospital to start the work on the hospital premises. Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer, said, “It has been decided that the education department would be giving a no-objection certificate (NoC) in one week, transferring two acres of the health department.”

District education officer Indu Bokan said that the transfer of land will not obstruct the functioning of the school. She said that as a part of the school building will be taken over, a few classes will be shifted to the government school at Sukhrali.

The demolition of the existing building has been on the cards since 2015, when the public works department (PWD) had prepared a report on the dilapidated condition of the hospital. The same report was submitted to the state in 2017. In 2016, the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram also conducted a study, which pointed out structural deficiencies in the building and suggested that the premises be vacated. There have been several incidents of ceiling collapses at the hospital. In 2015, a portion of the ceiling in the maternity ward collapsed thrice and in 2016, a similar incident took place in the intensive care unit.

Yadav also said that at the state level, a report on the scope of work on setting up 500-bed hospital has already been submitted. “Work on it will start once it is approved by the state,” said Yadav, who, along with his team, will shift to Sector 38 once the work starts.

In 2017 various facilities were shifted to the Civil Hospital in Sector 10 and the Polyclinic in Sector 31, with only the chief medical officer’s office, CT scan and MRI centre, and tuberculosis centre functional in the existing building. The diagnostics and tuberculosis centres will be shifted to Sector 10, said officials.