IGH’s super speciality hospital is ready but will it deliver?

ROURKELA:  The SAIL is all set to inaugurate the upgraded RSP-run Ispat General Hospital (IGH) on March 21 but apprehensions are being raised over smooth functioning of the super speciality facility due to lack of adequate manpower.

So far, SAIL has failed to recruit the required manpower to run the facility. Besides, its efforts to either rope in a private partner to run the new facility or AIIMS to take over it have yielded no result. 
In 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced to upgrade the 700-bed IGH into a super speciality hospital and medical college. Facing intense pressure due to years of delay, SAIL started work on converting IGH into Ispat PG Medical Institute and Super Speciality Hospital. 

In the first phase, it readied infrastructure for the super speciality hospital and medical equipment with Central funding of nearly Rs 300 crore but the medical college part was kept in abeyance. The super speciality hospital would have cardiology, cardiothoracic surgery, neurology, and nephrology departments.  
Reliable sources said lacking technical expertise to run the the new facility and facing financial constraint, SAIL has formed a trust under the leadership of the Chief Executive Officer of RSP to explore ways to run the super speciality hospital with private partnership. Though AIIMS is a technical consultant for the IGH upgradation project, both the premier institute and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare continue to be unresponsive on the demand to take over the new facility.

Adding to the myriad of problems, SAIL has failed to recruit specialist doctors for the super speciality hospital. CITU leader Bishnu Mohanty said after its hurried and unplanned inauguration, the new facility would not be able to provide quality critical healthcare. AIIMS should take over the new facility to cater to the advance healthcare needs of Sundargarh and four adjacent districts besides Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.

Reiterating Mohanty’s view, BMS-affiliated Rourkela Ispat Karkhana Karmachari Sangh chief Himanshu Sekhar said SAIL is technically incapable to run the super speciality hospital and AIIMS should take over. 
President Ramnath Kovind will inaugurate the new facility of IGH during his visit to Sundargarh to attend the convocation ceremony of NIT-Rourkela.