14 years on,Baramulla’s dream hospital still building

Locals too are disillusioned with the pace of work undergoing at the new hospital. “I don’t think this hospital will be completed in near future,” said Mohammad Afzal Wani,who lives close to the under construction new district hospital. “At the time of foundation,the officials had set a dead-line of five years for completion of the hospital,since then several dead lines have passed and hospital is still incomplete,” he said.

In the past 14 years,officials and politicians have been constantly projecting this hospital as a super specialty hospital equivalent to the Medical College. Now,people have apprehensions whether this hospital will have facilities equivalent to the district hospital that exists in the town. “Politicians and officials are deceiving people by claiming that this hospital will start functioning within next few months,” said Javid Ahmad Khan a resident of Baramulla. “So far 50 per cent work is still unfinished,” he said adding that government is not serious in making this hospital functional.

Constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 23 crore,so far,officials claim to have already spent Rs 15 crore on different works. To make people believe that the new hospital has started functioning,the hospital administration shifted the Out Patient Departments (OPD) of ENT and Dental departments to the new place. But,surgeries of these two departments are also done at the old hospital complex three kilometres away from the new hospital. “Now the officials are also ashamed with the slow pace of work. And to convey a wrong feeling that new hospital has started working two departments have been partially moved to the new place,” said Bashir Ahmad,a local.

“Imagine,a patient being examined at one place and then operated or admitted three kilometres away at another place,” Khan said. “This can only happen in Kashmir,” he said.

A senior hospital administration official on anonymity said that two departments have been shifted to the new hospital. “Once all the infra structure will be completed at the new place,all the departments will be shifted there,” he said. But,the official could not provide exact time when the new 300 bed hospital will start functioning. “The process has started,” he said.