PM inaugurates 1,055 beds at Safdarjung, tunnel to AIIMS
NEWDELHI: More than 1,055 emergency and super-speciality beds have been added to Safdarjung Hospital, which is one of Delhi’s busiest government hospitals seeing a footfall of more than 5,000 patients in its out patient departments (OPDS) each day.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday inaugurated the 555-bed super speciality block and the 500-bed New Emergency Block, at Safdarjung hospital, which will now have a bed strength of 2,800.
With nearly 2,000 patients needing admission daily, the additional beds will help meet the shortfall.
“Bed scarcity has always been a problem. The additional beds in the new super-speciality block will help us give admission to more needy patients and offer private wards to people who can afford them,” said JC Suri, head of pulmonary medicine, Safdarjung Hospital. The super speciality block has 228 private rooms.
The new emergency block, developed at a cost of Rs 346 crore, will house 64 triage beds, red zone for children and adults and 90 intensive care unit (ICU) beds for victims of road traffic accidents and other accident cases.
The super specialty block holds tertiary care facilities in the areas of heart sciences, neurosciences, pulmonary medicine, nephrology and endocrinology and shall be offering the facility of a heart command centre, respiratory care facility, sleep labs, 24x7 dialysis unit, MRI guided Brain Suite among other state-of-art treatment modalities.
The block that has been developed at the cost of ₹920 crore.
In the past, Safdarjung Hospital has made headlines for having two to three women and their newborns share one bed in gynaecology department .
“There were times when we were forced to accommodate more than one patient on a single bed because we were trying to treat as many patients as possible,” said a senior doctor at department of obstetrics and gynecology, requesting anonymity.
TUNNEL OF LIFE
Prime Minister Modi inaugurated a 1km motorable tunnel connecting the main All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) campus the AIIMS Trauma Centre across the road.
The 1km long underground, motorable tunnel will reduce commute time for patients, doctors, and to transport medical and other equipment from about 20 minutes to 5 minutes. Till now, critically-ill patients had to be shifted on the busy Ring Road.