The lone veterinary hospital of the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) is in desperate need of a makeover. The hospital, which was once the pride of the NDMC, is in a dilapidated state. Once offering services like X-Ray, pathological tests, and known for its expertise in curing severely ill animals, the hospital now limits itself to small surgeries and vaccinations.
The hospital, which was shifted to Moti Bagh from Jai Singh Road in 1964, does not admit patients anymore. Also, the double-storey building within the hospital premises which was constructed for admitting small animals and also carrying out Animal Birth Control (ABC) has been shut for over two years now.
However, despite the sorry state of affairs, the hospital is still in demand as around 90 animals are brought here daily not just from Delhi, but also from far flung areas of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and even Jharkhand. Compared to the number of patients coming to it, the existing infrastructure is not only unkempt but also inadequate.
While the well-equipped X-Ray laboratory is non-functional, their stock of medicines is also gradually thinning down.“The X-Ray machine has been out of order for the last few months and the hospital also needs a proper stock of medicines. Since it is a Government hospital formalities have to be done at every step which takes time,” said an NDMC official.
Similar is the case for the separate building which was made exclusively for treating large animals like cows, buffaloes and horses. “The indoor section built to hospitalise small animals has nearly 64 canals. A nice elevated path with railings adjoins the building for the animals to reach the first floor. But it is closed for a while now. The separate building meant for large animals is used even now, but it is very rare,” he said.
Causing much inconvenience to the visitors, the diagnostic laboratory of the hospital, which apart from performing various kinds of tests was also used for research purposes, no longer exists. “The lab is now shifted to the hospital in Palam by the Government. Pet owners do face a lot of problems as we don’t have the means to conduct even the basic blood, urine or stool tests. They get these tests done elsewhere and then come to us with the reports,” informed another official.
The hospital also had an electric crematorium for animals in its possession, but the shutters of it have been down for over six years now. The campus also used to house a stable for horses and a cooling area for them, apart from NDMC’s Central and Ayurvedic medical stores. To top it up, the hospital suffers from an acute shortage of manpower. The OPD which witnesses the largest rush has only one doctor in a shift along with one Veterinary line Inspector (VlI) and one hospital assistant. There is only one doctor who manages all the surgeries. “Many pet owners have to return disappointed as dates for surgery are already booked till November this year. At least two surgeries are conducted daily,” said the official. While the administration work is carried out by the Medical Superintendent, there is only one man appointed for cleaning of the hospital.
The officials, however, have cited the reason of shifting to another location in defense of the condition of the hospital. “The civic body has decided to shift this vet hospital to some other location as Charak Palika Hospital will be brought here. We are not initiating anything as funds will go waste if we start anything now. No location has been notified till date,” they said. Sources said that this might go on for years as nothing concrete has been carried out by the civic body in the past three years when it had announced this plan.