Members of the high court committee at Guru Govind Singh Hospital in Patna City on Saturday. Picture by Sachin

Patna, Aug. 4: A three-member team constituted by the high court today said no preparation has been made to start treatment by Jai Prakash Narayan All India Institute of Medical Sciences (JPNAIIMS) doctors at Guru Govind Singh Hospital despite a court directive.

The high court had attached the 450-bed Guru Govind Singh Hospital in Patna City with AIIMS till the latter’s (JPNAIIMS) building comes up. It had directed AIIMS doctors to join the hospital by July 25 and start treating patients in the two departments of emergency and trauma wards from July 26. But they have not joined till date.

The court had on June 29 last year fixed the deadline for the Union government to make JPNAIIMS hospital at Phulwarisharif, Patna, operational by October 2, 2012. While fixing the deadline for completion of the project, the court had constituted the three-member committee comprising petitioner advocate late M.P. Gupta, who has now been replaced by advocate Brajesh Kumar, state government counsel Shashi Bhushan Kumar and the Centre’s counsel Vinay Kumar Pandey to inspect the progress work of the hospital being set up on the lines of AIIMS, New Delhi.

“Despite the high court’s directive, the authorities concerned have not taken any step or made any preparation to start treatment by AIIMS doctors at Guru Govind Singh hospital in Patna City,” Brajesh Kumar, who is the petitioner’s counsel and member of the high court committee, told The Telegraph after making on-the-spot visit of the city hospital and AIIMS site at Phulwarisharif.

Even doctors, who were supposed to join the hospital by July 25 to start treatment following the court’s order, have not joined so far, Kumar said and added that even a board has not been put up saying that AIIMS hospital’s treatment would start from the city health hub. There is no power and water supply connection to a double-storeyed building, which is lying vacant, from where the treatment could be started, he added.

Unauthorised people are living on the hospital campus, Kumar said, adding no step has been taken to decongest traffic leading to the health hub. “This is the situation of traffic when the court ordered Patna senior superintendent of police to provide smooth flow on the stretches leading to the hospital. Even we got stuck in a snarl,” he said.

The committee, which also visited the Phulwarisharif site where JPNAIIMS is being built, expressed dissatisfaction over the slow pace of construction work of the super specialty hospital. “Going by the tardy pace of construction work of AIIMS hospital, there is no question of making it operational on October 2, 2012,” a member said.

“The committee found the construction work of the college building is complete and finishing work is going on. It is expected that the college would start imparting MBBS course on its scheduled time, that is September,” Kumar said, adding that the residential complex meant for doctors and administrative officials is ready.

Additional advocate-general 1 Lalit Kishore, who is the chairman of the high court committee, made the on-the-spot visit of AIIMS construction site following the court’s directive to come on the next date (August 8) with up-to-date progress of construction of the hospital campus, gates, roads and others.

The court, which expressed anguish on August 1 on the Centre’s affidavit that hospital service could be started from 2013, made it clear that it would hear only the progress of work by the contractors in construction of buildings and compound of AIIMS Hospital, Patna.