Amid doctors' protests, Delhi's Hindu Rao Hospital removed from list of designated COVID-19 facilities

NEW DELHI: The civic-run Hindu Rao Hospital, where resident doctors are agitating over unpaid salaries, was on Tuesday removed from the list of designated COVID-19 facilities in Delhi.

In an order issued on Tuesday, the Delhi government's health department said, Bara Hindu Rao Hospital was declared a designated hospital on June 14 in view of the surge in COVID-19 cases then.

"A request has been received from the Commissioner, North Delhi Municipal Corporation for converting the Bara Hindu Rao Hospital to a non-COVID hospital," the order said.

"The matter has been examined and in view of the low average bed occupancy of the hospital and request received from the NDMC, the hospital is being removed from the list of designated COVID-19 hospitals with immediate effect," the order said.

The Delhi government on Saturday had ordered shifting of COVID-19 patients from the civic-run hospital to its own facilities.

The move to shift patients had come a day after the resident doctors of the hospital went on a "symbolic indefinite strike" over their salaries remaining unpaid for the past three months.

Seventeen patients were shifted to LNJP Hospital and three to Aruna Asaf Ali Hospital, while there in ICU were retained.

On Sunday, the sanitisation of the hospital had started, and sources had said, the OPD of the 900-bed hospital was expected to be opened again to the regular patients in a few days.