The Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) of SAIL’s Ispat Post Graduate Institute and Super Specialty Hospital (IPGISSH) has run into trouble due to a shortage of doctors in most disciplines.
With modern facilities and world-class equipment, the hospital is currently only acting as a Covid hospital. It was designed to operate as a tertiary healthcare facility.
The hospital is located in the RSP’s Ispat General hospital campus. The facility was inaugurated by Prez Ram Nath Kovind on March 21 this year.
The development work of the hospital started in 2019. The plan for the hospital was announced in 2015 by PM Modi. The initial phase of the hospital was ready within 2 years at an estimated cost of 293 crores.
Sources say that SAIL has failed to recruit adequate manpower to smoothly run the hospital. Authorities from RSP and SAIL are said to have approached 18 major national medical institutes and hospitals, and other organizations.
All the efforts were done to be an operation and maintenance (O&M) partner in the IPGISSH over the last two years but to no avail.
RSP is still looking for an O&M partner, they added, but the Covid-19 outbreak has shifted the health sector’s objectives.
Infrastructure for five super-specialized departments, including neurology, neurosurgery, cardiology, cardiothoracic and vascular surgery (CTVS), and nephrology, was developed for the hospital’s inauguration.
Outpatient department (OPD) services were introduced in three departments. With a couple of doctors from IGH and a few more hired from Bhubaneswar’s reputable private hospitals, the hospital tried to fulfill the basic requirement of the hospital.
Even OPD services were discontinued in less than a month after the facility was converted into a Covid-19 hospital. After August 15, the RSP plans to transfer the remaining Covid patients to another institution and restart OPD treatments.
