The Delhi government’s biggest tertiary care health facility in the trans-Yamuna region, Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital, is ready for a major overhaul, with a new ward block, diagnostic block, and OPD block coming up this year. The hospital’s main building, which was established in 1979, is likely to be demolished.
The new infrastructure will not only spruce up the hospital, but it will add more than 200 beds, make it fire safe, and introduce digitalisation of processes to shorten queues. With Covid cases subsiding again, work on the new blocks has picked up.
The 1,920-bed ward block, and the adjacent diagnostic block, will be handed over to the hospital by contractors by June. The new blocks are located next to the oxygen storage tank for East Delhi that was set up in the hospital compound after the second wave of the pandemic.
“As you know, this building is very old but we have an upcoming block. By June, we plan to move all our patients to the new 1,920-bed ward block. After that, the government may plan to demolish this building. Earlier, this block was to be remodelled. However, the cost of remodelling was very high. With the same cost, a new building can be made,” said Dr Subhash Giri, medical superintendent, GTB Hospital. The block was to be completed last April but got delayed by around a month because of pollution norms and Covid.
Discussions are on to create a new super-speciality block in place of the main building of the hospital. The hospital currently has around 1,700 beds.
The diagnostic block will have facilities for MRI, CT Scan, ultrasound, and all laboratory tests, according to hospital officials. Not only has the tertiary care hospital that offers speciality surgeries been running without a much-needed MRI machine for over five years, but it has also been running an MD Radiology course without it.
The construction of a new OPD block will begin in a park, near the entrance of the hospital, where the clinic will be shifted by the end of the year before the main building is demolished. At present, all OPD clinics, wards, and diagnostics are housed in the main building. There is a mother and child block and a diabetes block in addition to the main building.
Dr Giri said all the upcoming buildings will be made in adherence to fire safety norms. “The fire safety of the building in the hospital was pending for five to seven years. Now, we have made one building fire safe and the work is ongoing for two others as well,” he said.
In addition to the enhancement of the infrastructure, the medical superintendent also plans to install some ‘May I Help You’ counters across the hospital in order to help patients. The aim is to also digitise all processes — the Delhi government is in the process of creating digital health records for city residents — to decongest registration counters and pharmacies.
“We are also looking at workshops and discussions with all healthcare workers to improve communication and reduce conflicts with patients. My aim is that we should be able to give quality care for the patients,” said Dr Giri.