The proposal to construct new building of the civil hospital pending with the state authorities, amid the growing demand for expanding and strengthening medical facilities in Hisar even as the existing government healthcare facilities at the Civil Hospital are bursting at the seams.
The Health Department sources said that while the land has been finalised for the new hospital, it is yet to be transferred to the health department for further process. Around 22 acres of land belonging to the Government Livestock Farm (GLF) on the outskirts of the town, opposite the airport on the Delhi Bypass, has been earmarked for the project, said the official. “After much deliberation, which took about two years to finalise the land, the process is now stuck at the stage of transferring ownership of the land from the GLF to the Health Department.”
Chief Medical Officer, Civil Hospital Hisar, Dr Sapna Gahlaut informed that the district administration has submitted the proposal to the state authorities for transfer of the land, after which the design and tendering process will begin before the construction of the new hospital.
With the growing town, the government Civil Hospital, constructed in 1957, is unable to cater to the increasing patient load. Moreover, it cannot be expanded or constructed vertically due to restrictions, as the hospital is located in the vicinity of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) -protected Hisar Fort, built by Delhi Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq in 1354. Construction activities are completely banned within a 100-metre radius of the fort under the ASI Act.
Social activist Dr Ramesh Punia said that Hisar has emerged as a hub of private healthcare, with more than 50 hospitals operating in the town and new hospitals being constructed by industrialists-turned-doctors. He said that with about 25,000 OPD patients daily collectively in all the hospitals in Hisar — who visit here not only from Hisar district and adjoining districts but also from neighbouring Rajasthan and Punjab — there is an urgent need to strengthen government health facilities.
“Not everybody, especially those visiting from rural areas, can afford treatment in private hospitals. There has already been a delay of several years in setting up a new hospital building. Unfortunately, the government spent Rs 7 crore on the repair and maintenance of the old civil hospital building earlier this year. About Rs 20 crore has been spent over the past 10 years on construction and maintenance works at the hospital, but all in vain. Until the capacity of this hospital is increased and a super-speciality hospital and trauma centre are established, patients will continue to suffer and bear the high cost of treatment in private hospitals,” he said.
