The orthopedic treatment facilities in Kashmir are set to receive a big boost as a 120-bed block at Bone and Joint Hospital Barzulla Srinagar will be ready by the end of this financial year. The hospital suffered massive damage due to a fire in March 2022.
A top health official informed the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that the valley’s largest orthopedic hospital is all set to get a big infrastructural push with the construction of the state-of-the-art additional 120-bedded hospital block.
He said the block is being constructed under the component of Strengthening of the Critical Infrastructure of the World Bank-funded JTFRP (Jhelum Tawi Flood Recovery Project).
The work on the project began in 2019 and was approved in 2015. The hospital had suffered major damage in the 2014 floods, with one of its buildings declared unsafe. The infrastructure was damaged further due to a fire incident last year.
“The state-of-the-art building has a G+5 structure with modern earthquake-resilient technology. The hospital building has modular operation theatres, laminar flow system, TSSU (Theatre Sterile Supply Unit), ICU, Pre & Post Operation care wards, CSSD (Central Sterile Supply Department), specialized laundry, pneumatic tube system, and waste collection system,” the official said.
He further said that the main features of the hospital building include IGBC (India Green Building Council) rating and biomedical waste management.
“The biomedical system designed will cater to the biomedical generation of 140 kg per day, which will be disposed of on scientific lines since it also has the provision for the construction of STP/ETP (Sewerage Treatment Plant & Effluent Treatment Plant) as part of the sub-project,” he said.
According to officials, it will be the first time in Jammu Kashmir that a hospital building will have a pneumatic transit system in place.
They said that pneumatic tube systems, which are widely adopted in hospitals globally, facilitate the efficient transport of medical items such as blood samples and supplies between floors or department.
This, they said, minimises costs and risks associated with manual handling.
The work on the sub-project has been allotted to NPCC (National Projects Construction Corporation) at a cost of Rs 88.94 crores, the official said, adding that various modern concepts in healthcare infrastructure, including environmental designs, patient wellbeing, macro/micro level zoning, scope for futuristic development, and optimal area utilisation have also been taken into account.
“The design of the hospital has been finalised after several rounds of consultations with leading national health infrastructure experts, health department, and hospital administration, and their inputs have been incorporated into the final design,“ he added.
The official informed that the work on the main superstructure is almost complete, with finishing works in progress. “These include the installation of HVAC (Heating Ventilation & Air Conditioning), firefighting and other equipment,” he said, adding that the hospital will be ready by the end of this financial year.
Doctors of the hospital told KNO that since the 2022 fire incident, they have been facing problems in catering to the huge rush of patients.
“But with the completion of the new building with modern facilities, the patients along with doctors will heave a sigh of relief,” they said, adding that the OPD receives around 1000 patients on average, from different corners of Jammu Kashmir and even Ladakh—(KNO)