The state health, medical education and family welfare department has set a July 15 target for starting services at 500-bed super specialty wing of Ranchi sadar hospital, lying defunct since its construction was completed in 2011.
In the first phase, the hospital’s seven-storeyed ward section will have 200 beds and an operation theatre, while remaining 300 beds will come to function in near future.
The department has started procedure for appointment of doctors, nurses and other hospital staff besides procuring medicines and medical equipment to run the hospital. “We have already posted 13 doctors while appointment process of other hospital staff is in progress,” said Ranchi civil surgeon Dr Shiv Shankar Harijan.
Harijan said they had set target of July 15 to start functioning of the hospital with two units—maternity and paediatrics. “A list of medicines and medical equipment is ready. It has been handed over to the suppliers and the equipment would start reaching the hospital by July end,” he said.
Spread over around 10 acres in the heart of Ranchi at Albert Ekka Chowk, the hospital was built at a cost of Rs 131 crore along with a 10-storeyed doctors’ hostel by the Jharkhand government.
{{/usCountry}}Spread over around 10 acres in the heart of Ranchi at Albert Ekka Chowk, the hospital was built at a cost of Rs 131 crore along with a 10-storeyed doctors’ hostel by the Jharkhand government.
{{/usCountry}}Health officials said initially it was planned to operate the hospital on a public-private partnership (PPP) mode. However, private players did not accept the financial terms of the health department and later the state decided to run it on its own.
In 2016, a public interest litigation (PIL) was filed in the Jharkhand high court over non-operation of the hospital. The health department had informed the court that it would complete the first phase of Sadar super specialty hospital by March 2017. However, in the next hearing of PIL in April this year, the department told Jharkhand high court that it would start functioning of the hospital with 200 beds in July this year.
The department, in its affidavit had stated that purchase of equipment such as wheel chair, bed side screen, refrigerator, examination table had been completed by the Ranchi civil surgeon.
Operation of the much-awaited hospital would help reduce struggle of patients to find beds in government hospitals. Jharkhand has one of the lowest bed to patient ratio in India at 1:6052 compared to the national average of 1:1833, according to the National Health Profile 2015.
The only government hospital in the capital, the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), currently operates 991 beds at its general section against a patient flow of 1200 per day.