6 years on, new Indore hospital exists only on paper, but hiring in full swing

What has not stalled are appointments. Over the years, staff have been appointed to 87 sanctioned posts — specialist doctors, medical officers, staff nurses, laboratory technicians and pharmacists among them. The most recent appointment to the hospital was that of a laboratory technician this June.

The result is a hospital that exists administratively — in transfer orders, sanctioned posts and staffing rosters — but not physically. Indore Chief Medical and Health Officer Dr Madhav Hasani confirmed that land had been allotted to the Health Department but not handed over. “A 100-bed civil hospital has been sanctioned for Khajrana, along with the necessary manpower. Land has been allocated to us, but we have not yet received physical possession of it,” he said, adding that the District Collector had directed the Joint Collector overseeing land matters to resolve the issue.

Deputy Chief Minister Rajendra Shukla, responding to questions on the delay, said the project remained on the government’s books despite a lack of progress on the ground. “Work could not start due to the land not being available,” he said.

Appointed staff attached to Sanjeevani Clinics

Those appointed to posts sanctioned for the hospital have, for now, been attached to several new Sanjeevani Clinics that the government has set up. Mukhyamantri Sanjeevani Clinics are part of an urban primary healthcare initiative of the Madhya Pradesh government. They were launched to provide free basic healthcare close to people’s homes, particularly in densely populated urban areas and economically weaker settlements where access to government health facilities is limited. The state has so far sanctioned 783 Sanjeevani Clinics, which provide free consultation, diagnostic tests and some medicines.

Chief Medical and Health Officer Hasani said around 85 Sanjeevani Clinics have been launched in Indore over the past two-and-a-half years, and that those appointed to the Khajrana hospital are working in these clinics for the time being.

The Khajrana hospital was originally conceived to ease pressure on Indore’s major public facilities — M Y Hospital, MTH Hospital, P C Sethi Hospital and the District Hospital — which together serve patients drawn from across the wider Malwa region, and to bring secondary care closer to residents of Khajrana, Musakhedi, Tejaji Nagar, Bicholi Hapsi and other colonies that have expanded rapidly over the past decade.

Existing pressure on healthcare infra

Indore district’s annual health report lays bare the pressure already being faced by the existing healthcare infrastructure. According to the report, Indore’s sanctioned bed strength outside its medical colleges stands at 1,240, including 300 at the District Hospital, 520 spread across eight civil hospitals, 240 across eight Community Health Centres, and 180 across 30 Primary Health Centres.

Set against a district population estimated at close to 35 lakhs, that works out to under 0.4 government hospital beds per 1,000 people — well below the two-beds-per-1,000 standard that the National Health Policy calls for.

Under Indian Public Health Standards, each of Indore’s eight Community Health Centres is meant to serve a population of no more than 1.2 lakh. However, the district’s population is more than three times the combined capacity those norms assume.

On the Khajrana hospital, the Chief Medical and Health Officer said the district was “working to resolve the land dispute so that construction can begin”.