Explain admin failure: UP govt asks director of Noida paediatric hospital with dilapidated building, sewage issues

On Sunday, The Indian Express had reported about the dilapidated condition of the Noida’s Super Speciality Paediatric Hospital in Sector 30. The stone slabs of hospital walls could be seen falling down, forcing the hospital administration to paste public notices across the premises warning patients and their attendants to “maintain a safe distance”. Besides, sewage water was seeping from the ceiling while a portion of a false ceiling had collapsed in the visiting room of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Only four of 11 elevators are functional.

Sharma also asked Director Singh about “seepage of water in the institution” which has “affected the image of the institution among the general public”.

The 240-bed super speciality child care hospital is the only such facility in Delhi-NCR, one among four in the country. Built by the Noida Authority, it was opened in 2015. Around 150 children with serious illnesses are treated in the OPD every day.

The five-storied premises houses several paediatric superspeciality departments, including Orthopaedics, Oncology, Cardiology, Haematology, Gastroenterology, Otorhino-laryngology, and Urology. It also runs a Down Syndrome clinic, Metabolic disease clinic, Cancer Genetics clinic, Genetic clinic for Couples, Neurogenetic clinic, and Neonatal Surgery clinic. There are more than 100 doctors, 16 senior nursing staff and 67 nursing staff working at the hospital.

Director Singh told The Indian Express that the hospital building is in a dilapidated condition because the quality and planning of the entire construction is faulty. “Those who constructed it should get it rectified,” he said. “I asked them (Noida authority) for the estimate as they constructed it.”

Noida Authority Chief Execu-tive Officer, Lokesh M, said they “only provided the funds for the construction of the building and the contract for the construction… was allotted to (Uttar Pradesh Rajkiya Nirman Nigam) UPRNN”. He said the hospital “was handed over to UP Health department in 2018 and the defect liability period was over in 2019”.

In his letter, UP Principal Secretary Sharma reprimanded Singh on this issue as well. “After the completion of the institution and the end of the defect liability period, the maintenance was to be executed by the Construction and Design Services of Jal Nigam. This was on June 16, 2022. You were directed to coordinate with the agency and provide the required estimate,” he said.

“But even after the lapse of two years of your tenure, the government was neither provided with the estimate nor was any information given on what actions were taken by you to bring coordination and contact between the agency as the Director of the institution,” he wrote.

Sharma also questioned the “lack of initiative” by Director Singh to sort out the issues faced by the hospital.