MADURAI

After a prolonged delay in the construction by more than three years, the super speciality block of Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) built under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) at a cost of ₹ 150 crore was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Madurai on Sunday.

Despite the inauguration of the facility after such delay, officials from the Health and Family Welfare department here said that it may take at least another three months for the facility to become fully functional.

Only the outpatient services for six super speciality departments, which included urology, nephrology, medical gastroenterology, surgical gastroenterology, neurology and neuro surgery, alone began at the new building on Monday. Director of Medical Education A. Edwin Joe inspected the building along with Dean (in charge) of GRH S. Shanmugasundaram and senior doctors.

The Dean said that a total of 467 patients utilised the outpatient service on Monday. As many patients, unaware of the shifting of outpatient services, came to the main block of GRH, buses were arranged from there to take them to the super speciality building, which is located more than 500 metres away opposite Anna bus stand.

“This arrangement will continue for the near future. If some outpatients had to be admitted as inpatients, a vehicle will take them from the super speciality building at 1 p.m. to the main building,” he said. “We have also deployed staff at these departments in the main block and put up posters to inform the patients,” he added.

Apart from inpatient and outpatient services for the six departments, the new block is expected to house micro-vascular department as well. The building will have 320 beds, of which 48 will be for intensive care unit.

While the project was originally expected to get completed by late 2015, it witnessed inordinate delay, owing to delays by the contractor that in turn resulted in litigations.

A senior official from the Health and Family Welfare department said that, apart from minor construction-related work, the hospital must also get additional staff to become fully functional. “It is not likely to happen in the next three months,” he said.