Waseem Ahmad
Srinagar, Feb 6: The Health Department has failed to utilize an old District Hospital building in North Kashmir’s Baramulla district after it was shifted to a new building.
The 100-bedded old hospital building was abandoned by the authorities in 2013 due to lack of space and shifted to the newly constructed hospital building in Kanthbagh area of the district.
Soon after the old building was abandoned, the residents of the area demanded a maternity and childcare hospital in the building as there is no maternity or childcare hospital in Baramulla district.
According to General Secretary, Traders Federation Baramulla, Tariq Ahmad Mugloo, after strenuous efforts by the locals of the area, a maternity and childcare hospital was sanctioned in the old district hospital premises. However, the proposed hospital is yet to see the light of the day.
“It is for the first time in the history that a working hospital building was abandoned and in place the building was not utilized for any purpose. After moving from pillar to post and repeatedly asking for a maternity hospital, authorities promised us that the building will be utilized for Mother and child Hospital (MCH) but the promise proved to be hoax,” he said
Mugloo said Rs 2 crore were sanctioned by then Union Health Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, for the proposed hospital but the amount was never utilized. “The renovation work of the old hospital complex was started for sometime but the complex was mysteriously gutted in a fire incident in 2015 and then the work never began,” he added
He alleged that out of Rs 2 crore, only Rs 37 lakh were utilized for the renovation of the old complex and rest of the amount is with the Health Department.
The locals complained that they have to face immense hardships as the new district hospital is overburdened owing to inadequate space.
However, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Baramulla, Bashir Ahmad Chalkoo, refuted the claims of the locals regarding the Mother and Child Hospital and said they have instead submitted a proposal to convert the old hospital complex into a Nursing College.”As there is no nursing college in the area, we have submitted a proposal for the Nursing College and sent a Detailed Project Report (DPR) to Health Department which is yet to be approved,” he said
As per Director Health Services Kashmir, Saleem-ur-Rehman, the old hospital building was abandoned due to lack of space and availability of new building at another location. “Government provided us a bigger infrastructure for a hospital, why should we operate in the old building,” he questioned
Asked whether the department has proposed a Mother and Child Hospital or Nursing College in the old building, he said: “I have no knowledge about anything in this regard. Besides, we are running our operations regarding maternity and childcare services from the new district hospital and we have no problem there.”
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