Guwahati, June 17: Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday informed that the mother and child wing of Guwahati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) was likely to be operational by April 2025.
Speaking to media persons after taking stock of the progress of construction of the upcoming facility at GMCH, Sarma said around 70 percent construction work has been completed while the remaining 30 percent was likely to be completed on or before April next year.
Built at a cost of Rs 375 crore, the facility will have eight floors, excluding the basement and the ground floor, with a total built-up area of 56,840 square metres.
“The purpose of the visit, apart from taking stock of the construction work, was to get a first-hand idea of its floor-plan,” he said.
Underlining the long-felt need for a wing dedicated to maternal and paediatric medical cases given the increasing number of patients visiting GMCH for treatment, the chief minister said that once functional, the facility would contribute immensely towards enhancing the capacity and efficiency of GMCH in dealing with such medical cases.
“As it is, the State Cancer Institute and the Cardiothoracic and Neuroscience Centre of GMCH have been contributing immensely in making modern healthcare services affordable and accessible to all,” he said, underscoring the importance of a robust public healthcare delivery system in the state.
Earlier, Sarma chaired a meeting attended by senior health department officials and GMCH authorities during which matters related to filling up of vacant faculty positions, recruitment of staff, capacity expansion, to name a few, of the medical college and hospital were discussed.
“As GMCH’s various departments, including super-specialty ones, start getting their own dedicated buildings, the current “main” building will eventually be housing only three departments,” he said, adding the subsequent de-crowding of patients will lead to reduced spread of infections among patients and visitors.
The chief minister also instructed health department officials to expedite the process of filling up vacant faculty positions in the state’s medical colleges and hospitals.
He also advised the GMCH authorities to make a transition from conventional electricity to solar-generated electricity for their daily energy needs.
IANS