The super-speciality Loknayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital in Rajvanshi Nagar , meant for orthopaedic disorders, will nearly double its capacity.

The 72-bed hospital will have 70 more beds next year. Hospital superintendent H.N. Diwakar told The Telegraph that work on setting up an additional 70-bed ward on the first floor of the hospital would be completed by March.

The decision was taken because most beds at the hospital remain occupied, forcing authorities to turn away patients.

Diwakar said the hospital was also working on modernising the three operation theatres and the intensive care unit at the hospital.

Doctors appreciated the move but said there were other things that needed to be looked into. "Three posts of orthopaedic surgeons and one of neurologist are lying vacant for a long time," said an orthopaedic surgeon there on condition of anonymity. "Earlier, immunisation and family planning programmes were being regularly conducted at the hospital but not any more. The two other super-speciality hospitals - Rajendra Nagar-based super-speciality hospital for eye and New Gardiner Road Hospital, a super-speciality unit for haemophilia, are, however, conducting these programmes apart from their speciality treatments."

The doctor said: "Another big problem is that the hospital does not have generator facility. It has an inverter but it is not sufficient to meet power needs. Power cuts during surgeries can prove risky, as the machines providing patients support during surgery do not run during a power cut."

Diwakar insisted the hospital administration was trying to improve facilities. "At present, few posts of doctors are lying vacant," he admitted. "The most problematic thing is that two posts of anaesthetists are also vacant. The hospital has sanctioned five posts of anaesthetists but there are only three. Of those, sometimes two take leave together, amking it difficult to carry out surgeries. We have written to the health department to fill up the vacancies but in futile so far."

He went on to add that despite the various difficulties, the hospital conducted 12 total knee replacement surgeries this year. "We also carried out a few spine surgeries this year," he said.