HYDERABAD: The misery of ailing babies, pregnant women and ill mothers from old city and surrounding areas who depend on the Nayapul Government Maternity Hospital is piling on by the day, with the Government's plan to shift the hospital to a new upgraded building getting delayed.

Though the State Government had announced plans in December 2005 to shift the 150-year-old hospice to the 10-acre premises of Police Transport Organisation (PTO) at Petlaburj and increase the bed-strength from 462 to 750, there has been no progress in the project so far. The PTO is yet to hand over the premises to the Health Department.

The hospice has nearly 100 admissions daily apart from 700 to 800 outpatients. Space or staff shortage are not the only problems plaguing the hospital that handles around 18,000 deliveries, 6,000 Caesareans and over 8,000 gynaecological surgeries annually. Most wards here have crumbling walls, leaking roofs and rickety beds. Two projects -- a Rs. 70-lakh gynaecology ward and a Rs. 150-crore multipurpose block with an in-patient wing and blood bank -- were also stalled.

Construction stalled

The construction of these, handled by the Quli Qutb Shah Urban Development Authority, came to a standstill after shifting was declared. According to a senior Health Department official, discussions are on between the Police and the Health Departments to sort out the delay.

"The reason for the PTO's reluctance is not known. It could be because they have not been able to find an alternative location," another official said. The Government, at the time of the announcement, had said that the present premises of the hospital, would be used to extend the compound of the High Court while there was no statement on a new location for the PTO.

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