Patients suffering from infectious diseases in the city will have to wait longer for better facilities during medical intervention at the Communicable Diseases Hospital (CDH) in Tondiarpet.
The Chennai Corporation Council on Thursday gave yet another extension of deadline for completion of the modern 1.1-lakh sq ft hospital that is being constructed on a 8.5-acre plot on the premises of CDH on Tiruvottiyur High Road.
Even though the council on Thursday approved the extension of the deadline for completion from November 15, 2011 to March 14, 2012, work on the site is yet to be completed. The construction work began in 2009.
The delay in construction of the modern hospital has emerged as a stumbling block to the Corporation's initiative of coping with the challenge of communicable diseases in the city.
Of the three modern blocks with 120 beds each, the civic body is planning to complete only two blocks in the first phase.
The third block will take additional time to be completed. Now, the existing hospital has only around 200 beds in old buildings that are insufficient for a large city facing consistent challenges to public health.
The modern facility coming up at a cost of Rs.13.53 crore will be a boon to a large number of patients not only in Chennai but also neighbouring districts. Patients from other States such as Andhra Pradesh are also making use of the hospital.
The modern hospital will house a block each for air-borne infectious diseases, diarrhoeal diseases and fevers. Separate buildings for the administrative block, laboratory, kitchen, outpatient block and laundry are also coming up. The earlier proposal for a modern mortuary has been shelved as the existing building housing the mortuary is found to be adequate for the hospital.
The modernisation was necessitated as the hospital received hundreds of outpatients with infectious diseases every day. The hospital plays a key role in tackling public health challenges such as A(H1N1).
Keywords: Chennai Corporation council, CDH modernisation
