GUJRAT: The Gujranwala Teaching Hospital (GTH) may get operational within a month as renovation of the building and installation of machinery and equipment have entered into a final phase after the government approved a supplementary grant of Rs535m.

The 502-bed hospital project will also serve as the District Headquarters Hospital (DHQ) Hospital as well as a teaching hospital of the Gujranwala Medical College (GMC). This teaching hospital comprises three towers attached with each other and it is established in the same compound where the medical college is located in Gondlanwala area.

The Rs7bn project was launched by the PML-N government in 2014-15 and its grey structure was completed in 2018; however, frequent changes in the provincial government set-ups had hurt the project and rendered its pace slow, a hospital official told Dawn.

He said most of the machinery and equipment had already been procured but they were lying unused since long. He added that Chief Minister Parvez Elahi had now tasked the health departments as well as the divisional and district administration with accelerating the work to make the hospital operational soon.

Dr Zain Bhatti, a political assistant to the chief minister, said the locals had anxiously been waiting for this public health facility to be functional as the current DHQ hospital locating in the city near the Commissioner Office was unable to cater to the needs of at least 6n population of the district with over 2m residing in the city.

He added that Mr Elahi took keen interest in getting the supplementary grant released for the hospital so that its remaining could be completed within the month of November.

Mr Bhatti, himself a PML-Q leader in Gujranwala, said the CM would soon inaugurate the hospital for which preparations were being made by the authorities. He claimed that the project would be a great gift of the PML-Q and PTI coalition government for the people of Gujranwala.

A senior faculty member of the medical college said recruitment of at least 130 medical officers and women medical officers and 90 nurses had been completed whereas the remaining staff might also be shifted from the existing DHQ in the city to make the new facility fully functional.

He added that the hospital had at least six intensive care units (ICUs) and a number of the latest operating theatres.

The medical equipment, beds, benches and the important machinery like CT Scan and MRI are also being installed at the teaching hospital whereas it has been given a centralized system of sterilisation of surgical and other instruments.

Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2022