Chennai: The state health department will shift the geriatric department with six doctors including two chiefs from Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital to the Institute of Ageing, a hospital for the elderly, on the campus of the King Institute of Preventive Medicine and Research campus in Guindy.
The hospital, like the Institute for Child Health and the Institute for Women and Children, will function as an independent hospital for paediatrics, Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital dean Dr E Theranirajan said.
The 200-bed geriatric hospital, which served as an exclusive COVID hospital, will soon start functioning as an independent facility for the elderly. Two chiefs and four assistant professors from two units of the department of geriatrics have been told they would be moved to the Guindy campus. “Doctors from different specialities will be posted there to ensure care under one roof. With ramps and handrails, hospital will be more elderly-friendly,” he said. However, senior doctors weren’t sure when the hospital will start functioning. The file seeking financial sanction for more staff – doctors, paramedics, and housekeeping – is before the finance department. Earlier, health minster Ma Subramanian told a news agency that the state has sought long-term funds against the two years fund for staff salaries they had given.
Doctors are awaiting financial sanction for recruitment of more staff including doctors, nurses, paramedic, and housekeeping staff. The first phase of appointments will begin after the finance departments sanction staff. “There could be initial sanction for appointment of 30 doctors on a contract basis, but the discussions are still on,” said a senior official.
Public health experts are demanding at least OP services to be started. In May 2022, when the COVID-team vacated the building, the health department ordered a committee set up to review the building’s stability as the “plastering was peeling off” from the newly constructed building. Three months later, a committee of IIT Madras professor Manu Santhanam and two PWD engineers confirmed there were no issues with the stability. The work on replastering was completed by the year-end. “Even if the state gets financial sanction, it would take at least three months to start services as they have to complete recruitment procedures,” a senior doctor said.
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