Having exhausted all efforts in handing over the 157-bed Purnima Sethi Multi-specialty Hospital to the Centre-run Safdarjung hospital, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) has decided to explore the feasibility to run the hospital on its own.
The director of hospital administration has been asked to explore the feasibility of the SDMC running the hospital. Earlier, reeling under "paucity of funds", the civic body had decided to transfer a 60-year-old municipal hospital in Kalkaji to Safdarjung Hospital, seeking a revamp of the health facility deteriorating with "incomplete redevelopment".
The civic body is also exploring the possibility to run the hospital on public-private partnership (PPP) mode as well, observing recurring expenses of about Rs 40-50 crore annually besides Rs 30 crore on procurement and establishment of pieces of equipment.
A senior official of the SDMC said that Additional Commissioner (health) has been asked to examine the matter for taking an appropriate view in this matter. "We are exploring all the possibilities now and will chalk out these soon. The SDMC is committed to provide better facility by introducing modern health equipments besides other facilities," he said.
"Presently there is only an OPD providing comprehensive general, specialist and laboratory service to people is operational on the first floor of the hospital," the official said.
The hospital is the first hospital for the SDMC, built originally in late 1950s as a single-storey building with 30 beds and named Colony Hospital. The hospital's renovation work began in 2007, but the work got stalled due to environmental and other clearance hurdles.
The Standing Committee of the MCD had first cleared the project in 2005 and it was supposed to have been completed in three years. However, construction started in 2010 and the cost went up from the initial estimate of Rs 3crore to Rs 52 crore.