MADURAI: It has been four months since the tower block operation theatre complex was inaugurated at the Government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai, and the facility is yet to start functioning, a reply to a Right to Information (RTI) petition has revealed. Health officials, however, have maintained that the equipment will arrive batch wise, and attributed the delay to technical snags.
According to the RTI reply, which was received by Social Activist Anand Raj, the tower block has ground plus six floors and 23 operation theatres. A total of 2,388 equipment were sanctioned for the facility, but 2,123 equipment were received as on June 18. As many as 265 equipment are yet to arrive at the complex. The facility, which caters to cardio-thoraic specialties, is constructed on 2.9 lakh square feet at a cost of `313.35 crore, and is a Tamil Nadu Urban Healthcare project funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
Speaking to TNIE, Activist Raj said, "The tower block project was inaugurated by Chief Minister MK Stalin on February 27, 2024. It has been over 100 days since the facility's inauguration, and the entire facility is not yet fully equipped. The hospital witnesses a daily footfall of over a thousand patients. Some wards are functioning, but the majority of OTs are yet to become operational. When I inquired with the officials, they refused to reply to my queries. We were forced to file an RTI application to know about the status of equipment. The reply was upsetting."
Speaking to TNIE, a top official from the health department said, "Equipment for each OT is arriving batch wise based on the specification of each section. There has been no negligence in equipping the facility. All post-operative cases will be taken care of in other treatment blocks. Installation processes are going on in the OTs."
