Civil Hospital needs to be demolished & rebuilt: PWD report

GURUGRAM: The Civil Hospital needs to be demolished and rebuilt, stated PWD in a report which also claimed the hospital’s intensive care unit (ICU) is in such a bad shape, it can’t be repaired. The report claimed the ceiling of the ICU ward is in a precarious condition, can collapse any time, and that repair is not possible. In 2015 and 2017, PWD had submitted reports stating the entire Civil Hospital building should be brought down.
“The problem is that beams, slabs and columns of the building are corroded at various points. Also, distress is being noticed in the form of spalling of plaster and cracks in the ICU ceiling. We don’t think the unit can be repaired now,” states the report. Officials suggested the building should be demolished and a new structure erected over it. In 2016, MCG conducted a study on the structural condition of the Civil Hospital building, and observed the same. “This building may be… vacated and appropriate measures for its structural examination and consequent remedial measure must be taken,” states the report, prepared by MCG’s engineering department at the time.

Built about 50 years ago, the hospital has witnessed six incidents of ceiling collapse in the last two years. In 2015, after the ceiling of the maternity ward collapsed thrice, hospital authorities decided to move the ward to the government hospital in Sector 10, and renovate the maternity ward. Then in 2016, the ceiling of the ICU ward also collapsed, but staff and patients had a narrow escape.

In 2012, the state government had spent over Rs 20 crore to upgrade the hospital building. Apart from renovation work, expensive equipment was also installed at the hospital. But ceilings appear to have been overlooked in most wards. In 2017, authorities promised to carry out an investigation about the repair work done in 2012, but it’s yet to take place.