Centre asked to pay med staff of new hospital in Tamil Nadu

CHENNAI: The state government has asked the Centre to fund the salaries of staff including doctors, nurses and paramedical staff who will be appointed for the 200-bed National Centre of Aging, a hospital for the elderly on the campus of the King Institute of Preventive Medicine and Research campus in Guindy.
The facility, constructed for 157 crore and converted into an exclusive Covid hospital in 2020, has remained vacant since March 2022.
The corridors of the four-storey hospital are empty, and the beds and medical equipment are gathering dust because the state is yet to appoint doctors and other healthcare providers. “We have sent the proposals for human resource recruitment to the state’s finance department,” said health minister Ma Subramanian. “The centre has given us funds for about two years to fund staff salaries. We are asking for long-term funding,” he said.
Health department sources said the first phase of appointments will begin once the finance department sanctions staff strength. “The facility will be exclusive multi-speciality care for the elderly. Unlike other hospitals, this hospital will have more nurses to care for patients. The atmosphere will be more elderly-friendly,” a senior doctor said.
In May 2022, health minister Ma Subramanian ordered a committee set up to review the building's stability as the "plastering was peeling off" and "it did not look like it was built two years ago.” Three months later, a committee of IIT Madras professor Manu Santhanam and two PWD engineers confirmed there were no issues with the stability. The plastering on the walls was ripping off because the contractor did not mix two chemicals with M-sand. No action was taken against the contractor as he had followed procedures listed in the tender, Subramanian announced.
On December 16, Subramanian said the replastering and painting were nearly complete. The building will soon be dedicated to the elderly by chief minister M K Stalin in the presence of Union health minister Mansukh L Mandaviya, he announced. Officials now say it will take at least three months to start operations. “We have to call for applications through advertisements. It will take at least two months to complete recruitment. The hospital will be opened only after the inauguration of an upcoming multi-speciality hospital near it," an official said.