VIJAYAWADA: Even after one year delay, the Government Superspeciality Hospital in Vijayawada city is yet to be operational. The hospital was to be completed March of 2018 but it is still in construction phase.
The officials of the Directorate of Medical Education (DME) claim that it would be ready in the upcoming months.
The project had started in June 2016. But it was a delay as payment of `30 crore on behalf of the State government remained in a pending state. The hospital is going to accommodate up to 300 beds and constructed with a total budget of Rs 150 crore. Though the project was taken up under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) scheme, the State government assured to pay `30 crore at the time of signing contract. However, that amount was not paid.
Speaking to TNIE, Dr K Venkatesh, director of Medical Education, said, “In the next three to four months, the building will be handed over to us and we would start the super speciality services. Almost 95 per cent of the construction work has been completed, only the equipment has to be installed.”
Though the officials sounded positive, it is not clear if the government has cleared the dues and released the amount to the Centre or not. In case the funds have not been released, then the services are going to take much more time to get started.
At present, the government hospital in Vijayawada city doesn’t offer any super speciality services. As many as 1,000 patients visit either the OP or Inpatient service at Vijayawada GGH, on a daily basis. But the hospital lacks critical care services like neurosurgery, paediatric surgery, urology, gastroenterology, nephrology.
Due to the lack of these services, patients are being sent to Guntur GGH or private hospitals. Even critical surgeries like paediatric and cardiac surgeries are also not offered in the government hospitals of the city.
After completion of the hospital, critical care and emergency super speciality wings with 20 beds each, and AXC, XCE, RSU section with 50 beds each will be available.