Friday, 1 July 2011

Medical Education Minister keeps mum over next deadline

Super Specialty Hospital again misses deadline as Modular OTs yet to be installed  

Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, July 1: The Super Specialty hospital of the Government Medical College (GMC) has once again missed deadline of completion with a lot of construction work as well as purchase of infrastructure pending. Some posts of Specialists and other staff for the hospital have been advertised but the recruitment process was also taking its time.

Minister for Medical Education R S Chib admitted that the deadline has been missed and cited the reason that installation of Modular Operation Theatres (OTs) has not been completed. However, he preferred not to give another deadline in a hurry.

Having failed to meet December 2010 deadline set by the Government for completion of the hospital, it was revised and target of June 30, 2011 was set for starting the Super Specialty hospital, which would house six specialties reducing burden on the GMC to some extent.

Official sources told that like previous deadlines, the fresh and revised deadline of June 30, 2011 for completion of Super Specialty hospital, which is coming up at Resham Ghar, just few meters away from the GMC Jammu, is all set to be missed as neither the construction work has been completed nor the infrastructure including equipments required for running the super specialties have been procured so far.

Six Super Specialties, which were proposed to be shifted to the upcoming hospital, included Cardiology, Cardio Thoracic and Vascular Surgery (CTVS), Nephrology, Urology, Neurology and Neuro Surgery.

Sources said construction, purchase of machinery and recruitment of Specialists and other staff for Super Specialty hospital were three major bottlenecks in making the hospital functional, the idea for which was first conceived in February 2004.

The construction work is being executed by the CPWD while the purchase of infrastructure is being personally taken care of by a separate wing set up by the Union Ministry for Health and Family Welfare. According to sources, out of Rs 20 crore worth purchases, there was delay in release of state’s share due to which the purchases were also held up.

The posts of specialists and other staff for the new hospital have been advertised but the process of recruitment was expected to take time.

Sources said all three major factors i.e. the construction, purchase of infrastructure and recruitment of staff have contributed to delay in starting the Super Specialty hospital and missing deadline after deadline.

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