362-bed Trauma centre to open soon at Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital

New Delhi: The Delhi government is set to launch a state-of-the-art trauma center at the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital, which is expected to commence operations by September this year. This new facility, hailed as the largest in the country for trauma care, will feature 362 beds, including 39 ICU beds, and six advanced modular operation theaters.

According to officials from the Public Works Department (PWD), construction of the facility is complete, with the current focus on furnishing the interiors. The project, costing Rs 117.78 crore, faced several delays but is now anticipated to be handed over to the health department by the end of July.

"The building is complete. Now the work of putting up furniture is being carried out," the official said, news agency PTI reported.

Built at a cost of Rs 117.78 crore, the trauma centre has missed many deadlines. It was supposed to be completed in May this year but officials are confident that the centre will be ready by July 31.

S K Kakraan, Medical Superintendent of the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital, said the construction work of the trauma centre was sped up in the last few months.

According to a PTI report, "We have asked the PWD to hand over the hospital by the end of this month. After that it will take around a month to arrange for equipment and staff," Kakraan said, and hoped that the centre would be operational from September.

The construction work for the trauma centre started in September 2019 after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal laid the foundation stone.

It was expected to be ready in 2021 but the construction work got delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the deadline was pushed to 2022.

According to officials, workers left during the pandemic and even after the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions, there were delays due to the the curbs implemented under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) to control pollution in Delhi.

Last year, during a surprise inspection, Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj had flagged the slow pace of construction of the trauma centre.

The minister had emphasised that the new trauma centre, once built, will benefit people in and around the area.

Due to the scarcity of trauma centres in Delhi, people often have to transport patients to distant facilities after an accident, resulting in treatment delays and higher chances of fatalities, Bharadwaj had said.