HYDERABAD: Thick, sticky cobwebs hang from windowpanes with broken glasses, used and soiled clothes lay heaped in the dimly-lit corners, king-size empty wooden cabinets hang their heads, while the entire expanse of the floor is littered with dog excreta and the occasional empty booze bottles. 

Yet when the afternoon’s golden sunlight enters the windows lining the corridors to fill the arched hallway of Osmania General Hospital’s first floor, life breathes into the structure subjected to years of neglect and institutional apathy. 

It also paints a picture of what the nearly 100-year-old hospital could have been if it was properly maintained and if myriad conservation-cum-shifting plans were not red-taped for years together.

Built in the 1920s by architect Vincent Jerome Esch, the hospital enthrals visitors to this day with its tall glass-panelled dome which lights up the entire building. While its intricately designed jaalis adorning the numerous arches stand in a tribute to the distinct Osmanian architectural style -- a confluence of Deccani architecture with its European counterpart. 

However, it's not just a matter of saving heritage or ‘restoring it to its past glory’ when it comes to the OGH. The need for restoration and quick action is necessitated because as the name suggests, it is a fully-functional hospital with hundreds of patients and doctors spending time in the building for hours together. The condition is so bad that and as numerous media reports have time and again reported, chunks of the ceiling have often fallen, endangering lives of both doctors and patients. And when ruin strikes, it does not discriminate. 

Pointing at a patch on the ceiling in his large office, Superintendent of OGH, B Nagender told Express, “That fell down a few weeks ago. There is also a water seepage problem in the entire hospital, apart from the structural crumbling.” It is Nagender’s responsibility to ensure the safety of all those under the hospital’s roof, and he is looking at the State government to address the issue by constructing a new hospital building nearby. “I have restored the door and the paintings of Nizam VII Osman Ali Khan Bahadur and Nizam VI Mahboob Ali Khan. However, there are limitations to the funds and to what I can do personally.”

“This plan of shifting the hospital’s work to the new building has been in the ropes for quite some time. Last year, it was supposed to happen, but then the State went for early elections. Now, it is the Lok Sabha elections,” Nagender said adding that he hoped the State government will take up the proposed construction after the Model Code of Conduct is officially lifted.