Amid all other things in mere speculation so far, at least one thing about the new complex of Ranchi Sadar Hospital has been made clear today that the hospital will have Gynecology and Pediatric specialty. The announcement came from none other than Chief Minister Raghubar Das during the two year completion programme at his residence on Wednesday.
The CM said that the hospital will be turned functional as soon as possible. He also hinted that the Hospital was, in all its possibility in changed circumstances, to be run by Government itself, making no room for further speculation about the possible manager of the Hospital.
“The proposal made by Narayana Hrudayalaya in the past to run Sadar Hospital was not viable for the State. However, I have had words during my Singapore journey last week with a company which expressed interest to run the hospital. One Ex-Army doctor named Dr. Jha with decades of experience of running hospitals in Delhi, Haryana and around also expressed interest in running Sadar Hospital. He is expected to meet us on coming Saturday. Many things will be clear after that,” said the CM.
However, health department showed its utter unawareness about the details of whatever CM said about the Hospital. “We know nothing than what you know about what the CM has said. We are not aware of any Dr. Jha or someone else. What we know at this point of time that the department’s proposal is lying with CMO and he (CM) is the only right person to take right decision about the Hospital. We are waiting for his order,” said Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Sudhir Kumar Tripathi on Wednesday.
The 550-bedded Super Specialty Sadar Hospital, largely constructed and ready to be used since at least couple of years has turned a perfect example of confusion at decision-making level among health department offcials and the government. There have been ongoing talks in the past on whether the proposed hospital be run on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode or Government should start running it of its own.
The health department reflected a number of interests to run the hospital on its own. It has actually started drafting proposal of recruitments also. However, a Super-Specialty Hospital chain called Narayana Hrudayalaya showed interest to run the Hospital during CM’s visit to Hyderabad this year.
The group then proposed the government to pay `370 on the overhauling of the Hospital, largely to be spent over undertaking plumbing, building repairs, electrical work and procurement of equipment to the health department. The health department felt this over-expense unwarranted for.