The indoor ward of MKCG Medical College and Hospital in Berhampur. Picture by Gopal Krishna Reddy

Berhampur, Sept. 12: The three-storey indoor ward building of MKCG Medical College and Hospital here has been declared unsafe by the public works department.

The department has suggested the hospital authorities to vacate the building in a phased manner.

“Most of the beams and column structures have collapsed and the frame has been in a dilapidated condition. The building is in an unsafe condition,” Kumar Panigrahi, assistant engineer of the public works department told The Telegraph.

“We have asked them to first vacate the wards located on the top floor of the building within this month and shift other wards subsequently. There are three intensive care units (ICUs) and eight operation theatres (OTs) in different departments. We have suggested the authorities to shift all these ICUs and OTs in the last phase as it will take time,” he said.

A new medicine ward building was handed over to the hospital authorities on September 5, while separate buildings for orthopaedic and pediatric wards will be handed over by the end of this month. “The patients shifted from wards on the top floor of the present building will be accommodated in the new buildings for the time being,” said Panigrahi.

An eight-storey building for indoor ward is expected to be ready in 18 months at Rs 28 crore. The present three-storey building will be dismantled within three to four months.

The site for the new eight-storey building has already been selected behind the present indoor ward building.

The indoor ward building of MKCG has 1,081 beds in 21 different departments, about 200 doctors and 400 nurses and Class-IV employees, apart from the patients’ attendants.

Principal of the medical college and hospital Sunamali Bag said a high-level committee would shortly visit the present indoor hospital building and follow up action would be taken accordingly. “We are ready to shift the patients from the indoor building within one month,” said Bag.

The new eight-storey indoor hospital building would be a miniature of the building of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, he said.

MKCG Medical College and Hospital had started functioning in the 1960s. Banku Bihari Das inaugurated the three-storey indoor ward building on February 11, 1973.