Union Minister of State (Independent charge) for Labour Bandaru Dattatreya laid the foundation stone for construction of a 300-bed ESI Hospital, in the presence of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, Union Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu, Ministers, MPs and MLAs at Sheela Nagar in the city on Monday.
The Chief Minister, Union Ministers, State Ministers, MPs and MLAs left minutes after laying the foundation as the Chief Minister was scheduled to participate in a series of programmes in the city.
Later, participating in the birth anniversary celebrations of Mahatma Jyothi Rao Phule at the Convocation Hall of Andhra University, the Chief Minister said that the proposed ESI Hospital would be built to meet the needs of the large number of industrial workers from the three districts of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam. The CM suggested that the hospital be a 500-bed hospital, which was readily accepted by the Union Minister of State.
‘Will be a boon’
The hospital will have all modern medical care facilities. Similarly, all ESI Hospitals in the State will be modernised. He said that the ESI Hospital in the city will be a boon to north Andhra and would meet the requirements of 191 lakh insured persons from the three districts. The patients will be referred from the 14 ESI Dispensaries, five panel clinics and one ESI Model dispensary-cum-diagnostic centre in the region.
The existing ESI Hospital at Gandhigram at Scindia was established on January 26, 1972. The hospital was set up land taken on lease from the Visakhapatnam Port Trust (VPT).
lease period
The lease period had expired and the building had reached a dilapidated stage. The new hospital building will come up in an extent of 6.80 acres and have all the facilities for secondary care medical treatment for the insured persons and their family members, according to a note issued by Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC).
State-of-the-art design
The new hi-tech hospital will have state-of-the-art design and facilities comparable to any corporate hospital in the country.
The hospital will have all secondary care treatment facilities, super specialty services in cardiology, nephrology and oncology, all diagnostic facilities, accident and emergency facilities, operation theatres for general surgery, orthopaedic, obstetrics and gynaecology, eye and ENT, immunization and family welfare and Ayush facilities.
