Shot in arm: Tweaked plan gets Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar nod, 700 beds for new Civil Hospital

GURGAON: The revised plan of the new Civil Hospital building in Civil Lines has been approved by the state government. It will now have 700 beds instead of the 400 proposed earlier, the Haryana director general (DG) of health services said on Tuesday.
The health department had submitted a fresh proposal to increase the hospital’s bed capacity last year, which was approved by the chief minister.The objective is to fill critical gaps in health infrastructure, surveillance and research, so that communities are well equipped in managing pandemics or other public health crises, officials said.

“The proposal has been approved by the Haryana government. The new Civil Hospital will have 700 beds. This is an important move as we need more government hospitals in Gurgaon, keeping in view its growing population,” DG (health) Sonia Trikha said. Work on the new building is likely to begin in June.
The new hospital building, which will be developed at Civil Lines in place of the old Civil Hospital, will include two basement parking areas, a CT-MRI unit, departments of radiology and oncology, a nebulisation and an immunisation room, as well as microbiology, clinical pathology, molecular and biochemistry units.
“It will be a highrise with residential areas for only emergency doctors and staff. It will also have a critical care block,” said Virender Yadav, the chief medical officer, adding that the demolition of the old building has been completed.
The new facility will also have a haemophilia and thalassemia day care centre, psychiatry, de-addiction and mental health centres, labour room complex, ICUs, an operation theatre, TB centre, Ayush block and ambulance office, as well as separate surgical, orthopaedic, burns and paediatric wards. Last year, the government had approved Rs 260 crore for the hospital.
Built about 50 years ago, Civil Hospital witnessed at least six incidents of ceiling collapse in 2020 and 2021 alone. The public works department, in reports submitted in 2015 and 2017, recommended that the entire building be pulled down to avoid further mishaps.
In 2015, after the ceiling of the hospital’s maternity ward collapsed thrice, authorities decided to move the ward to General Hospital in Sector 10 and renovate the maternity ward. A year later, the ceiling of the ICU ward also collapsed. Hospital staff and patients had a narrow escape.