Health Minister Ramchandra Chandravanshi on Tuesday said that the department of Health is planning to complete relocation work of three departments of Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) to the superspeciality wing at Sadar Hospital by March next year.
The three departments of RIMS - orthopaedic, surgery and neurosurgery – were proposed to be shifted to the superspecialty wing of Sadar Hospital at the direction of Chief Minister Raghubar Das who wanted to offload the premier government hospital’s burden of patients that come for treatment as the three departments fetch more number of patients.
“We are planning and materials (building materials) have been purchased. We will shift the three departments by March. Of 500 beds, we have given 200 beds to the district hospital and remaining will be used to run the three departments of RIMS,” said Chandravanshi.
The announcement to relocate the three wings was first made in July, however, initial hiccups in finding a partner to run the superspeciality wing of the hospital delayed shifting of the departments. Although the department of Health has not found any suitable partner to run the unit, efforts are still on to start the unit. However, it is still unclear how the newly created health infrastructure would be run.
Incidentally, the Chief Minister had earlier said that the new nine-storey building in the Sadar hospital premises, which was to be run on PPP mode, would be operated by the state government but operational details are yet to be prepared. The relocation work cannot be done until the superspeciality hospital becomes ready to host patients. The department claims to get the building ready before March.
“We have discussed that (making the superspecialty functional) and soon a tender will be floated. We will purchase equipments and run the unit in one or two months,” added the Health Minister.
The decision to run the facility on its own was taken after New Delhi-based hospital group Medanta gave a cold shoulder to the PPP offer. Despite initially interests, Dr Naresh Trehan-led-hospital chain backed out of the Rs 230-crore facility in May.
The interiors of the superspecialty building needed finishing touches to become complete before the three departments of RIMS are shifted completely. According to sources, RIMS has to be upgraded under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana hence the need of relocation was felt instead of creating additional posts and increasing manpower at the Sadar Hospital to make the new building operational.