Here’s the most glaring example of what bureaucratic indifference can lead up to, even when the matter pertains to extremely critical medical services. The ambitious expansion plan of the premier All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) — which includes doubling the number of hospital beds — is stuck in limbo due to unavailability of land which belongs to the Delhi Development Authority. More than a year has passed but the DDA is yet to allot the land to the hospital which caters to over 12,000 patients everyday. This includes nearly 10,000 patients in the OPD.
Officials said the AIIMS administration had prepared the expansion plan to augment the number of beds besides setting up new critical care facilities at the Trauma Centre. Surprisingly, the DDA has not deliberated the matter yet. DDA officials said that this matter was yet to be discussed with the board of DDA. “lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung is chairperson of the DDA and he has to give the final nod for the project. However, the matter has yet not been brought up in the board meeting,” said an official.
Underlining the expansion of the facility, AIIMS officials said the existing bed strength at the AIIMS is only 2,200 while the AIIMS Trauma Centre — which gets almost 1,000 cases per day — has merely 120 beds while the emergency block has only 20 beds. This extreme shortage of space has been the cause of perennial sufferings of the patients who come to AIIMS from all across the country. But what aggravates their troubles in the unavailability of beds and a majority of patients have to wait for long before they are admitted to the hospital. However, there is not much that the hospital can do because their blueprint of expansion is yet to take off due to lackluster attitude of the land owning agency.
The hospital wants to use the land situated behind the AIIMS Trauma Centre, which belongs to the DDA, for building the extension of the Trauma Centre, a new emergency block, a specified transplant department and a cardiothoracic treatment cell. “The intention of the hospital is to increase the bed strength from 2,200 to 4,200. So far, the construction of only two structures has started — the surgical and the maternity block — being built at the land near the Masjid Moth. However, the maximum expansion is supposed to take place on the land behind the AIIMS Trauma Centre and the construction has not started there yet,” said Rajeev Maikhuri, media coordinator of the hospital.
The hospital even has plans to expand the ICU to include 20 more beds. However, all of these plans have to wait till the DDA board approves of the construction on their land. Hospital authorities were hopeful that the approval would be given soon. “As far as we know most of the approvals have been given. We are just waiting for the final yes from them,” said an official in the hospital.