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Woman and Child Hospital commissioning will be delayed

Rajesh Nair

Hospital being built as per international standards: official Will have a children play area, a shopping mall and a cafeteria

PUDUCHERRY: The commissioning of the Woman and Child Hospital will be delayed by at least four months.

The Rs. 47-crore project, began in the year 2004, was first slated to be opened by the 2006-end. Health Minister E. Valsaraj made an announcement at a review meeting of the National Rural Health Mission project in February this year that the hospital would be ready by August.

However, the Public Works Department and Health and Family Welfare Department officials told The Hindu that the project would go on for at least another four months.

By December-end

"We hope to handover the project by the end of December," a senior official said. He attributed the delay due to the re-drawing of the pile work in the initial stage and shortage of construction materials.

Six of the total 12 blocks had been completed, including flooring and plastering. Work for the remaining blocks were at various stages of construction. Two blocks were in the final stages of completion. Out of the 700 beds, 300 would be allotted for maternity care and the remaining for neo-natal and paediatrics.

There would be 11 state-of-the-art operation theatres, with the latest gas scavenging system, which has the facility for puffing out anaesthesia gas and pressurize the room.

Taking into account the present rate of deliveries undertaken in the maternity ward of the Government General Hospital, (60 per day) and the expected marginal rise in the number of cases, six operation theatres have been earmarked for gynaecology. The labour room of the new hospital can accommodate 25 pregnant women at a time, said a senior official with the Health and Family Welfare Department. The maternity ward in the General Hospital handled around 20,000 deliveries in 2006.

The hospital would be the first Government medial care centre in the Union Territory designed by an architect specialised in the area.

The hospital, with a built-in area of 30,000 square metres, is being constructed as per the international standards. Besides the infrastructure for latest treatment, the hospital will have play area marked for children, a shopping mall and a cafeteria.

Alternative energy

One of the specialties of the hospital would be the two exclusive blocks run on alternative energy, mainly through solar and electricity generated from its effluent treatment plant.

Officials from the Institute of Sustainable Energy, Pune, are expected to visit the hospital next month.

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Woman and Child Hospital commissioning will be delayed

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