Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) on Sunday opened a rest house for patients' attendants to stay in.
BJP leader C.P. Thakur inaugurated the facility - which the IGIMS administration is calling a dharamshala - to accommodate 40 persons at one time. The veteran leader had provided Rs 60 lakh for the project.
Inaugurating the facility, Thakur announced another Rs 70 lakh for construction of a cardiac library at the college.
"The Medical Council of India has time and again pointed out lack of journals in the existing library. Starting a cardiac library will increase the strength of journals in the college," said an IGIMS faculty member.
Patients' attendants have limited accommodation options at IGIMS.
There is a rain basera (shelter) on the campus which then chief minister Lalu Prasad inaugurated in the 1990s. It can accommodate only 25 people. Besides this, there is shelter tent for attendants set up by the Central Reserve Police Force. But these are not enough to accommodate all of the patients' attendants so some stay in hotels and lodges around the city but more camp on the campus, in the open.
Health minister Tej Pratap was irked to find attendants sleeping on the hospital floor during one of his visits to the hospital in February. He asked the authorities to make necessary arrangements. Hospital director N.R. Biswas informed Tej that the building construction and road construction departments had provided funds, as part of corporate social responsibility, to build shelters. Once completed, this would add to the current three shelters.
Stay at the "dharamshala" will be chargeable just as the rain basera has been all this time.
"They would have to pay Rs 40 a day. We have to look after the maintenance of the dharamshala," said medical superintendent Prabhat Kumar Sinha. "This amount should not be a problem for the patients and their kin."
"People have to pay Rs 8 a day to stay in the rain basera on the campus," he added.
Sinha also said IGIMS plans to add another floor to G+1 dharamshala with funds provided by former MLC Kiran Ghai. "Ghai has provided us Rs 40 lakh for the work. Construction of another shelter for attendants, funded by the government departments, is going on and the facility will be open soon."
Sources at the hospital said even with this dharamshala, crisis in accommodation will continue. "There are 500 beds in the indoor department and they are filled with patients all round the year but it is impossible for us to create a parallel accommodation facility for the patient's attendants," said Sinha.
Among the other new facilities on IGIMS's card Sinha said are adding 35 beds to the emergency wing next month, taking the total number of beds to 70. "The new 35-bed emergency unit will be air-conditioned and will be equipped with intensive care unit facility," Sinha said.
