The super-specialty hospital in Srinagar is yet to become fully functional, even as the authorities concerned are yet to clear the bills on account of installation of elevators as well as the air-conditioning system there.
The super-specialty hospital has been set-up at a cost of around Rs 140 crore, but its operation theatre block—housing at least six modular theatres—is still non-operational.
A source said that one of the biggest impediments in making the hospital fully functional is that its elevators are yet to be made operational.
As per the information accessed by Greater Kashmir, the central public works department (CPWD), the executing agency for the project, has not cleared the bills on account of installation of elevators, and hence the company which installed the elevators, has refused to make them functional.
“The company is refusing to give us passwords and control of elevators because the CPWD still owes them Rs 60 lakh,” said the source.
A senior official at the government medical college Srinagar said that despite multiple communications to the government to take up the matter with the CPWD, the issue remains unresolved.
“The GMC also tried to settle the bill out of its own funds but the company rejected this mechanism,” the official said.
He said that in absence of elevators, “we cannot take the risk of shifting the Cardiology department, or other key departments which receive emergencies, entirely to the new building.”
“We can’t put lives of patients at risk,” the official said, insisting not to be named as he wasn’t authorised to speak with media.
After a delay of eight years, the super-specialty hospital was made functional, albeit partially, last year. Presently, only the gastroenterology department has been fully shifted to the hospital, while seven other departments are functioning “partly” from there.
During the past three years, all heads of departments at the government medical college Srinagar, under whose control the super-specialty hospital functions, have expressed annoyance over the manner in which the project was executed by the CPWD.
A senior doctor said that crores of rupees have been spent on construction of the building, but it is a “sorry state of affairs that for want of clearance of a bill worth few lakh rupees, we are not able to shift key departments to the building. This shows the callousness of the government to resolve the issue.”
Another official said that the issues confronting them were “beyond our control.”
“We have been requesting the authorities to provide relief to us but nobody is responsive. In Jammu, the super-specialty hospital is functioning fully for the past so many years,” the official said.
At present, the theater block, the radio-diagnostic lab, and all other major facilities are located on the upper floor which is accessible by ramp and stairs only. And like elevators, the theatre block is also non-operational.
However, the lack of access is not the only impediment in making the OTs functional.
As per the official, the air-conditioning system at the high-end theatres is “faulty.”
“One side heats up too much, and the other gets too cold,” he said. The modular theatres cannot be operated without an efficient air-conditioning system, he said.
He said that although the theatres were under annual maintenance contract (AMS), the company that has supplied the air-conditioning system has not been paid a bill of Rs 30 lakh by the CPWD.
“The company is refusing to do more work on the air conditioning system,” said the official.
Moreover, OT equipment worth Rs 2.5 crore which was damaged in the 2014 floods before it could be installed is yet to be replaced, said the source.
“It is yet to be decided that who would pay for the new equipment—the supplier or the executing agency,” the source said.
The hospital was commissioned by the government of India at a cost of Rs 137 crore in 2007-08. Although the building was declared as “complete” in 2014, it was never handed over to concerned authorities.
“They (CPWD) just left after the floods of 2014,” said the source.
Principal GMC Srinagar Prof Samia Rashid agreed that the executing agency, CPWD, left the job incomplete.
“This is a centrally-sponsored hospital where the funds were transferred from the union health ministry to the CPWD directly. However, they are nowhere in sight,” she said.
She said that currently the GMC had undertaken repairs of the building out of its own funds, while it was still under a maintenance contract.
“We are trying our best to make it functional, but there are surely some issues,” she said.