After years of delay, MCCH Anantnag finally to be shifted

Anantnag, June 4: After years of delay, the Maternity and childcare hospital (MCCH) in Anantnag will soon be shifted to Rehmat I Alam hospital.

The hospital, presently housed in an old, dilapidated and unsafe building in congested Sherbagh locality of town caters to the entire south Kashmir as well as Chenab and Pir Panchal valleys.

The hospital is only 40 bedded with an average of more than 40,000 patients in the Out-patient Department (OPD) and about 7,000 indoor patient’s on a monthly basis.

It always remains overcrowded with even two to three patients sharing a single bed.

The beds have been put even in the corridor

The space crunch has been for long taking a toll on the healthcare of the patients and at times forcing the doctors to unnecessarily refer pregnant ladies and children to Srinagar hospitals.

The hospital has also hogged the headline for deaths of expecting mothers.

However, if GMC Anantnag authorities are to be believed, the hospital after years of delay will be finally shifted to Rehmat I Alam hospital building located at KP road this year only.

“We are expecting the pending works in the main block and also the construction of another block to be completed soon after which the hospital will surely be shifted,” Principal GMC Anantnag, Dr Tariq Qureshi told Greater Kashmir.

He said another block will also be constructed there.

The Health and Medical Education department has already accorded the sanction to the administrative approval for the project .

As per two separate orders issued by Secretary Health and Medical Education, the pending works of all floors of main blocks of the hospital is to be done at an estimated cost of Rs 1857.66 lakhs while shear walls/ Jacketing/VFDs is to be done at an estimated cost of Rs 651.88 lakhs.

The administrative approval, as per the order, is subject to several conditions including works are executed strictly as per the DPR duly vetted by Development Commissioner Works, drawings are vetted by competent authority, e-tendering mode is followed, unexecuted part of the work to be executed as per the approved design and NOC is sought from all regulatory authorities etc

Director General Manager DGM, JKPCC Ghulam Hussain Dar said that they have submitted their report to the Chief Engineer, R & B for technical sanction.

“Once we get the sanction we will carry out the repair work of the main building,” Dar said.

He said the DPR for construction of another building will be submitted by R & B itself.

In February 2017, the government accorded sanction to taking over the building by the Health and Medical Education Department with all its assets and liabilities.

The government had earlier started the process of taking over in 2015.

The work on the Rs 12.12 crore hospital was stopped midway, mainly due to a paucity of funds.

However, in early 2020, the former Lieutenant Governor sanctioned Rs 9 crore more for the project.

But the work again remained at a halt due to the pending safety audit report.

Later, when JKPCC completed the major part of the construction and spent crores on it, the government tasked IIT Jammu to conduct a safety audit of the building.

It took the audit agency more than a year to come up with the report in which it recommended jacketing of columns and vital beams in the ground floor and first floor of the building to strengthen it further and reduce the vulnerability.

IIT had not declared the building safe for neonatal and pediatric ICUs and recommended the same not be not be used for hospital purposes.

Following this the authorities were mulling to shift MCCH to main GMC Anantnag hospital.