HYDERABAD: While the city is braving the winter with night temperature hitting as low as 11.9 degree Celsius on some days, hundreds of people are forced to sleep on the pavements under the open sky.
Now, cut to the Maternity Hospital in Koti where an average 1,200 deliveries are performed every month. The admission at the 120-bed hospital, as per officials, is thrice its capacity. Scores of attendants share the hospital campus to find a place to sleep.
On the right side of the main entrance to the hospital stands a brand new (G+3) building. Everyone around here knows it belongs to GHMC and has been constructed to house the attendants. “It has been ready since a month now but not been handed over to the hospital,” said a hospital staff.
Under the National Urban Livelihood Mission, the GHMC has proposed to construct permanent shelters for attendants across seven major hospitals in the city, at a cost of `12.14 crore. The building at Maternity Hospital has been constructed at a cost of `1.95 crore. Owing to lack of land at the Maternity Hospital in Petlaburj, the hospital constructed two waiting sheds on its own.
The Koti Maternity Hospital is not an isolated case. Express’s visit across other hospitals made us realise ‘work in progress’ is the common excuse everywhere.
Take for instance the case of Niloufer Hospital for children where close to 500 attendants can be found on the premises at any given time. Here, authorities were to construct a (G+1) building at a cost of `1.7 crore. However, only the first floor has been constructed and will be ready to use by the month end.
Initially, Maternity Hospital at Petlaburj was among hospitals chosen for the scheme. As they failed to provide land, GHMC decided to approach Mahavir hospital for land. Meanwhile, the hospital constructed waiting sheds.