An entrance of the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, Feb. 28: Six months ago, members of a committee constituted by Orissa High Court is surprised that people had free-for-all access into the S.C.B. Medical College Hospital premises through the two main entrances on both sides of it.

Despite subsequent orders by the high court for stoppage of the thoroughfare, unrestricted traffic — both human and vehicular — on the road between the two entrance gates of the hospital which connect Manglabag on the eastern side with Ranihat on the western side, is far from being stopped.

Amicus curiae Pravat Ranjan Dash said the high court had expressed displeasure over the delay and observed that the health department was taking a lot of time to close the thoroughfare.

“The division bench of Justice B.P. Das and Justice M.M. Das had issued directions last week for the personal appearance of the state health secretary on March 15, to clarify on this issue and other pending issues related to S.C.B. Medical College and Hospital that had not been complied with even after repeated court orders,” Dash said today.

The two-judge bench had, on January 6, issued fresh orders for stoppage of the thoroughfare on the hospital premises, and establishment of online facility for receiving complaints and displaying doctors’ duty list in front of various departments along with the telephone numbers of the departmental heads, he said.

S.C.B. Hospital authorities informed that inauguration of the new entrance by chief minister Naveen Patnaik yesterday had paved the way for enforcing new mechanism to regulate traffic through the main road inside the hospital.

Official sources said that Swasthya Bikash Samiti (SBS), headed by the revenue divisional commissioner (central), had in its general body meeting on January 24, taken up the problem of overcrowding inside the hospital premises due to unrestricted traffic on the thoroughfare.

The samiti had approved stoppage of the thoroughfare after construction of an alternative road as the more than half-a-km stretch of the road inside the campus has been used as a shortcut road by public between Manglabag and Ranihat for long.

For the alternative road, the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) was expected to handover the road adjacent to Taladanda canal on the western side of the hospital to the roads and buildings department to enable it to complete construction by September, official sources informed.

In another development, the CMC had handed over the road between the two entrance gates to the public works department and construction work on it had since been completed.

Superintendent of the hospital, D.N. Maharana, said: “Overcrowding in the road inside the hospital is causing inconvenience for transportation of the patients for which thoroughfare needs to be stopped. Adequate security arrangement needs to be made for the purpose.”

The hospital administration had already appointed 130 security personnel. “But, construction of the two new entrance gates, along with opening of new wards and expansion of the existing wards had increased the requirement of security guards,” the superintendent said.

The Swasthya Bikash Samiti had approved deployment of 120 more security personnel to strengthen the security system on the hospital premises.