North MCD to give Hindu Rao Hospital, Medical college a new look

New Delhi: The Hindu Rao Hospital, Delhi, one of the biggest government healthcare facility of the city catering to over 2,000 patients daily is soon get a new look. The North Municipal Corporation of Delhi plans to build a multidisciplinary health block at the cost of Rs 105 crore on its premises.NMCD’s Friday house meeting was presented with a proposal to this effect.

The Hindu Rao Hospital, situated on the northern ridge on Malka Ganj Road, and considered one of the largest includes departments of gynaecology and obstetrics, neurology, ENT, skin, burns, cardiology, and plastic surgery. The facility also has a regional blood bank, a Thalassemia day care unit and neonatal intensive care unit. The 'anti-rabies injections' municipal health program, run from the hospital is very popular as well.

A senior official said, "The existing old structure will be demolished at a cost of Rs 6 lakh and the new construction will commence as soon as we float a tender for construction work."

"We are estimating that the new health block, complete with all facilities, new equipment, lights, machines, operation beds, etc. will cost us about Rs 105.41 crore," he added.

An erstwhile nursing home, Hindu Rao was converted into a general hospital offering basic preventive and curative OPD services with 127 beds for in-patients in 1951. Taken over by the MCD in 1958, it was designated as a referral hospital in 1963.The hospital feeds medical and health needs of a number of referral patients from the dispensaries and colony hospitals managed by the MCD, and public hospitals managed by Delhi administration, as well as charitable and private institutions.

In July 2013, a new 50 seated medical college with an undergraduate program was started here named North MCD Medical College with an affiliation to the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University.

NMCD has been facing problems in running its several hospitals due to expenditures involved. It had earlier announced that it would merge four of its hospitals.

The civic body on an average spends close to Rs 400 crore on its five hospitals. It charges only Rs 5 for a receipt.

Facing a huge deficit, the NMCD is likely to be topped with Rs 2,700 crore again.

The hospital also proposes to hand over the under-construction Balak Ram Hospital to the Delhi government once fully operational, reports India Today.