Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The government is mulling over shifting TB Hospital currently located at Idgah Hills to Hamidia Hospital campus, already a congested complex running two other medical facilities.
Hamidia Hospital, attached to Gandhi Medical College(GMC), Bhopal, currently houses two more hospitals on its campus- Sultania Hospital and Kamla Nehru Hospital. Now, if the authorities go ahead with their plan of shifting the TB hospital and bringing all these health facilities on one premise there would not only be overcrowding on the campus but also threat of disease transmission, potentially transforming the campus into a ‘hotspot’ for disease spread.
“Talks are going on at a higher level about shifting of TB Hospital to old Hamidia Building with minor renovations,” confirmed Director of the Directorate of medical education (DME) Dr AK Shrivastava.
The government is planning to shift the TB hospital to the old building of Hamidia Hospital with minor renovations.
Interestingly, while the talks are on for the shifting of the TB hospital, a sum of Rs 55 crore has been sanctioned for a new building for developing Regional Institute of Respiratory Disease(RIRD), Bhopal, on TB Hospital premises. Former President Ram Nath Kovind had performed bhoomi pujan for the same in May 2022.
So now plans to shift the hospital to the old Hamidia Hospital building, a new premises which is already overcrowded, sounds irrational, says Junior Doctors Association(JUDA) general secretary Dr Kuldeep Gupta. He further expressed concern, saying that the shifting of TB Hospital to the Hamidia Hospital campus will turn the entire complex into a hotspot for the spread of disease. “ There will be four hospitals on one campus. Currently Hamidia hospital, Sultania Hospital and Kamla Nehru are running on the same complex and now the plans are being made to shift TB Hospital there.”
TB patients also have very low immunity and so they too will remain vulnerable to other infection, similarly, other patients at the three hospitals in the complex will also be at the risk of coming in contact with TB, said Gupta, voicing his concerns.
