3 years on, new hospital wing in Sector 10 still on drawing board

Gurgaon: Chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar had announced a new hospital block, including 100 beds, at the Sector 10 Civil Hospital in 2015 and the project was supposed to be completed before the BJP-led state government ended its five-year term in Haryana. Three years later, the project is yet to take off.
Last week, Power Grid Corporation of India offered to fund the project as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR). The public works department (PWD) will build the new block, which would have a multi-speciality set-up. HSVP, earlier known as Huda, will provide the land adjacent to the existing hospital for the project.

The plan initially was to build floors of the new block above the existing hospital building but in August 2015, it was revealed that the building could not bear the weight of additional floors. So in November 2016, it was decided that the new block would be built on the vacant Huda plot, adjacent to the hospital. However, it took two years to finalise it.

In July 2018, the director general of health services wrote to Huda to transfer the land to the health department. However, the authority turned down the request, stating that the ownership of the land would remain with Huda, even if the new block is built there.

On Thursday, Power Grid officials, civil surgeon Dr BK Rajora and deputy commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh inspected the land. Now, PWD has asked the health department to submit the scope of work i.e. all that is required as part of the new block’s infrastructure. The health department will provide details on laundry and kitchen, as well as number of floors, operation theatres, laboratories, wards and OPDs to be constructed.

The current three-storey hospital started operations in 2014. It has 100 beds and caters to 700-800 patients in the general OPD and speciality departments for ophthalmology, gynaecology and paediatrics on a daily basis. There are around 131 employees, including 13 doctors and 26 nurses, working in the hospital. An approval has been given to increase the staff strength to 256, including 67 doctors and 90 nurses. However, more staff can be appointed only after the new block is ready. Considering its current status, it will take at least two years to construct the same.

Once the new block is ready, a ‘mother and child’ speciality wing will be built in the old hospital while all other speciality wings will be in the new one. Daily footfall of patients in the new block is expected to be around 2,000, which will significantly take the load off the city’s largest government hospital in Civil Lines. “We are working on the scope of work, which will be submitted to PWD by next week. The new block will come up in around 1.5-2 acres. Once ready, the burden at Civil Lines hospital will reduce and the renovation of that hospital can be streamlined,” said Dr BK Rajora, civil surgeon, Gurgaon.