Victims of accidents, falls and other injuries will soon have access to a new trauma centre at the Delhi government-run Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital which is likely to be functional from September this year.
The hospital will have "the country's largest trauma centre" with 362 beds, including 39 ICU beds. It will also have six modular operation theatres, said an official of the Public Works Department. "The building is complete. Now the work of putting up furniture is being carried out," the official said.
"We plan to hand it over to the health department by the end of this month," he added. Built at a cost of Rs 117.78 crore, the trauma centre has missed many deadlines.
It was supposed to be completed in May this year but officials are confident that the centre will be ready by July 31.
S K Kakraan, Medical Superintendent of the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital, said the construction work of the trauma centre was sped up in the last few months.
"We have asked the PWD to hand over the hospital by the end of this month. After that it will take around a month to arrange for equipment and staff," Kakraan said, and hoped that the centre would be operational from September. The construction work for the trauma centre started in September 2019 after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal laid the foundation stone.
It was expected to be ready in 2021 but the construction work got delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the deadline was pushed to 2022.
According to officials, workers left during the pandemic and even after the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions, there were delays due to the the curbs implemented under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) to control pollution in Delhi.
Last year, during a surprise inspection, Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj had flagged the slow pace of construction of the trauma centre. The Minister had emphasised that the new trauma centre, once built, will benefit people in and around the area.
Due to the scarcity of trauma centres in Delhi, people often have to transport patients to distant facilities after an accident, resulting in treatment delays and higher chances of fatalities, Bharadwaj had said.
