75-bed government hospital for children in Tirupati soon

TIRUMALA: The first government hospital for children in the State is fast coming up in Tirupati. Initially, the 75-bed hospital will be housed in a block in Balaji Institute of Surgery, Research and Rehabilitation for the Disabled (BIRRD) Hospital complex of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams on a temporary basis. 

Later, the hospital will be shifted to a permanent building to be constructed in six acres of land allotted by the TTD. The new block of BIRRD Hospital will be handed over to the authorities by July 20 for setting up of the children’s hospital. It will have three operation theatres and two of them are exclusively meant for cardiac surgeries. It will also have a state of the art Intensive Care Unit. 

A separate general ward, rooms for doctors, a front office with reception and other modern facilities are part of the hospital project. The new block has been constructed at a cost of Rs 8 crore. “We are set to hand over the building to the authorities by July 20 to set up the 75-bed children’s hospital,” TTD Executive Officer and Chairman of Specified Authority KS Jawahar Reddy said, after inspecting the new building on Friday.

After the State bifurcation, Niloufer Hospital, the only government hospital for children in the erstwhile combined AP, went to Telangana as it is located in Hyderabad.  In August last year, the TTD Trust Board meeting held under the chairmanship of YV Subba Reddy, resolved to construct an exclusive children’s hospital in Tirupati. It was decided to house the hospital in one of the new blocks of BIRRD Hospital under construction on a temporary basis. 

The State government has already planned three paediatric super speciality hospitals at Tirupati, Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada.The TTD has allotted six acres of land adjacent to SVR Ruia Government General Hospital for the children’s hospital and it is now awaiting a nod from the Centre to take up the construction of building complex.