Berhampur: The process to vacate the old three-storied indoor hospital building of the MKCG Medical College and Hospital begun last week.

"The old indoor hospital building has been declared unsafe by the Public Works Department (PWD) since 2012 and we are going to vacate it completely within two weeks," said dean and principal of MKCG Medical College and Hospital, Radha Madhab Tripathy.

The MKCG Medical College and Hospital had started functioning in the 1960s and the indoor ward building was inaugurated 45 years ago on February 11, 1973.

Though some departments have been shifted to new structures specially built for them, some departments like ENT, orthopedics and surgery are still running in this unsafe building. While 90 beds were shifted to the new orthopaedics building, 60 beds are still at the old indoor ward. The department of surgery would shift to the newly inaugurated super speciality block shortly. The decision about accommodating the ENT department will be taken within a few days, said the dean. "All the patients admitted in these departments are being accommodated in new buildings. We will wait till the patients are discharged from the wards in the old indoor ward. The operation theatres would be shifted phase wise," the dean further said.

"Most of the beams and column structures have collapsed and the frame has been in a dilapidated condition. The entire three-storied indoor hospital building is in unsafe condition. We declared the building unsafe after the chief engineer of the PWD from Bhubaneswar inspected it on September 8, 2012," said executive engineer, PWD Berhampur, Division I, Binod Padhi.