Inaugurated on November 2 by Dhanbad MP P.N. Singh, the sadar hospital built at Hirapur is still not running over three weeks later, thanks to the severe crunch of government doctors in the district.
MP P.N. Singh inaugurated online the hospital from a function at Tundi on November 2 to declare Dhanbad as Jharkhand’s “third fully electrified district” without the government deputing any doctor or staff for the new facility.
It is not known yet when the hospital, near the civil surgeon’s office, would start. Once it does, it will lessen the load of the Saraidhela-based PMCH, which has 500 beds and an OPD inflow of around 1,000 patients a day from the district and elsewhere, including Santhal Pargana.
District civil surgeon of Dhanbad Chandrambika Srivastava had earlier this month told this paper that they were facing a crisis of doctors in the district but hoped to launch the OPD services at sadar hospital by month-end. “We are facing such a shortage of doctors in the district that we find it difficult to run even community health centres,” he had said. On Saturday, Dhanbad district malaria officer Jay Dev Chandra Das put the doctor shortfall at 50 per cent.
Sadar hospital, a 300-bed project conceptualised in 2008, seemed to have been inaugurated in a hurry as a formality, a source said.
“Built at a cost of Rs 9.07 by Jharkhand Rajya Bhavan Nirman Nigam through Ranchi’s private contractor M/s Aman Enterprises, it is over twice the original estimate of Rs 4.88 crore in June 2008. Delays hiked costs. It must be said that Dhanbad MLA Raj Sinha helped speed up this project. Still, even after inauguration, it is not a hospital but only a building,” the source said.
A health official said four doctors would be initially deputed to run OPD services in the gynaecology department at the new hospital. Two each pharmacists, dressers, nurses, ward attendants and sweepers and a storekeeper would also be deputed. Medicines and other facilities would be arranged from nearby community health centres initially.
Urgency to complete the project was seen on May 9 when chief minister Raghubar Das ordered the construction of sadar hospital be finished within a month, which finally happened.