After dithering for long, the State administration has finally taken a call on setting up a district hospital in Dehradun. A proposal to convert Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya hospital (Coronation) and nearby Gandhi Centenary Eye Hospital into the district hospital has been accepted by the State administration. The proposal would now be sent to the State Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat who also looks after the health portfolio.

The Director General (DG) health Dr Archana Srivastava said that the proposal to shift district hospital in Coronation and the Gandhi eye hospital has been accepted by the state administration. Under the plan, the Coronation hospital would cater emergency and some OPDs while OPDs like eye, skin and some specialized departments would be operated from Gandhi eye hospital. Initially 65 doctors would be deployed in these hospitals which mean that some medical officers of Provincial Medical and Health Services (PMHS) attached in the Government Doon Medical College (GDMC) hospital would have transferred to the new district hospital. The department is also working on a plan to increase the number of beds in these hospitals and augment other facilities so that they are able to withstand the pressure of a district hospital.

It is worth mentioning here that the Dehradun was without services of a district hospital from about three years now. To meet the obligation of an associated 300 bed hospital for a medical college, the then congress government headed by Harish Rawat had amalgamated the Male and Female district hospitals popularly called Doon hospital in the GDMC. In absence of district hospital, the medical college hospital which actually should serve as a referral centre bore the entire load of patients from all parts of the state.

The reluctance of the Medical health and family welfare department in providing medicines and other facilitates also aggravated things at the GDMC hospital as it had been shifted to medical education department.