The Health Minister of Uttarakhand, Surendra Singh Negi inspected the under-construction building of Gandhi Centenary Eye Hospital (GCEH) in Dalanwala on Thursday and directed the officials to complete all pending works by July 31. The Minister threatened that a monetary penalty would be imposed on the officers concerned for any further delay in construction of the hospital.
Shortly after the inspection of GCEH, the Minister told the mediapersons that the hospital would be inaugurated in the month of August.
In another significant announcement he said that to reduce patient load on the associated hospital of the Government Doon Medical College (GDMC), the medicine and skin departments of the hospital would be shifted to the building of GCEH. “To ease pressure on the associated hospital of medical college we have decided that 120 beds would be shifted from there to GCEH. The ground floor would have OPDs of Eye and Medicine while I and III floor would have wards of general medicine while Floor II would be for the eye patients.
We will also strengthen facilities in the Coronation hospital,’’ Negi said. The minister said that the project of the eye hospital got delayed due to which its cost escalated from initial Rs11 Crores to Rs20 Crores. He said that during the BJP government no work on the ambitious health project could take place but now the hospital would be soon opened for general public.
The minister suggested some changes in the hospital structure like dismantling of the front wall to accommodate more vehicles in parking and change of the old fashioned floor tiles. In response to a question Negi said that the State Government is planning to start screening health camps in all the remote blocks of the State.He said that the services of Physician, Gynecologist, Child specialist and orthopedic would be provided and follow up camp would be held after 15 days at the same place. These camps would have facility of on the spot pathology tests.