Dwarka hosp may be ready for Covid soon but no docs

New Delhi: The Delhi government's 1,700-bedded Indira Gandhi Government Hospital in Dwarka, construction for which began eight years ago, was supposed to be handed over to the health department by the end of June last year. This would have bought the Capital some precious time as it continued to augment bed capacity in the city where the fourth wave of the pandemic is wreaking havoc.

But as of this month, a senior PWD engineer involved in the project said, "Only the external infrastructure has been completed, the inside is hollow, the necessary furniture is yet to be approved. Beyond the physical construction, there are resources like oxygen and paramedic staff that will be required as well." He added that water pipelines, electrical work, hospital management systems are yet to be set up.

And even as the hospital continues to run into paperwork delays between the PWD and the Health Department, officials working on the hospital have now been directed to ready at least three floors of the building to care for Covid patients.

"We are in the process of setting up washrooms and basic infrastructure so that it can be treated as Covid Care Centre. By May 10, it should be ready," the senior engineer from PWD said. The three floors are expected to accommodate around 300 beds but the problem the Delhi government will run into is the same as the one it faces as it adds beds at the Ramlila Grounds and the open fields next to the LNJP Hospital — there are no doctors, paramedics, nurses to man these beds and care for these patients.

And of course, the beds are pointless until the Capital starts meeting its medical oxygen requirements — only expected to increase to up to 1,000 MT by the time this wave peaks.

A state health official said that the government has been facing a shortage of healthcare workers and many of them have been infected in the current wave. "Even if the facility were up and running where will we get the healthcare workers from," the official said.

"The nearest government hospital, DDU Hospital in Hari Nagar cannot handle the patient load and even though the Janakpuri Highly Specialized Hospital is there, it too has not yet started functioning to its full potential," a health official said.

Officials have said that the last two years have seen paperwork being stuck or delayed — much of it from the Health Department's side.

The paperwork for the mentioned hospital was said to have been processed, according to a junior official from the PWD, and the hospital building was expected to be handed over to the Health Department on June 30, 2020. A tender was also drawn for all the necessary items needed for the hospital but it has remained stuck since.

"A revised estimate was sought by the Health Department and we sent that on March 31 this year but there has been no response from the department," the senior PWD official said.

Significantly, Cabinet Minister Satyendra Jain heads both the health and PWD departments.