Chandigarh: New trauma centre at GMCH opens by month-end
The hospital administration has issued a circular regarding a Sukhmani Sahib path at the new trauma centre building on July 27. Though the hospital administration has not confirmed the date, sources revealed that the 283-bed trauma centre will be opened on July 28. The authorities are awaiting confirmation of the Union Minister's availability before announcing the date.
GMCH-32 director principle Dr AK Atri said, 'The building is ready and a circular regarding Sukhamni Sahib Paath has been issued for July 27. The equipment has been installed and all emergency services will be shifted to the new building in a phased manner.'
Until now, the trauma centre at PGIMER had been bearing much of the load of emergency patients, with their numbers consistently rising over the years. GMCH already has one trauma centre in Block-A, with 45 beds. But the rush here goes up to 400 on a daily basis. On several occasions, there were reports of patients being treated on trolleys due to shortage of beds.
The new emergency-cum-trauma centre, with 283 beds, will cater to patients needing immediate care, including natural and manmade disasters, road accidents, etc. The facility also has over 40 ventilator-support beds. The new emergency-cum-trauma centre building has two basements for parking, operation theatres, CT scan, MRI and other services in the building.
The ₹52.77 crore project had received approval in 2019 and was supposed to be complete within 18 months but it faced numerous hiccups, causing delay. Due to pending environment clearance certificates, Covid and other reasons, the project has seen multiple delays. On December 16, 2024, UT administrator Gulab Chand Kataria had gone on a surprise visit to the hospital and inspected the construction work of a new emergency-cum-trauma centre building. He had then ordered to complete the work by March 31 and operationalise the building by April.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New Indian Express
2 hours ago
- New Indian Express
SC order not a quick fix, ineffective ABCs, lack of data worsen crisis
CHENNAI: The keenness expressed by Municipal Administration Minister K N Nehru on Tuesday to implement the Supreme Court's order to remove stray dogs from the streets appeared to be an indication of a quick fix after failing to effectively implement the Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme for over two decades. Activists point out that, despite spending tens of crores every year, the stray population remained much higher than official estimates. To start with, there is no reliable state-wide data on the stray population. According to the nation-wide Livestock Census done in 2019, TN had 4.41 lakh stray dogs. Of the 25 municipal corporations, only four have completed surveys in the last two years. Tambaram recently undertook a survey, estimating around 45,000 dogs. The data from four corporations (Chennai, Coimbatore, Erode and Vellore) show that they together have roughly 3.3 lakh dogs, which is nearly 75% of the state-wide population in 2019, indicating the rapid growth the state seems to have witnessed, particularly during and post-Covid. As per this data, Chennai has 1.8 lakh strays, but the actual numbers could be 2.2-2.3 lakh, sources said. Of the strays in these four corporations, only a meagre 19.8% have undergone ABC procedure. Local bodies should ideally target sterilising 70%-80% of the dogs in a ward in a city over a period of 5-10 years. A meagre 20% coverage would leave the remaining to reproduce at an average of 4-6 pups per litter. Shravan Krishnan, director of Besant Memorial Animal Dispensary, said instead of trying to implement the unviable suggestion of the SC, local body officials who failed to properly implement ABC should be pulled up. The worsening of the problem is evident from the rise in dog-bite cases as well. According to Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme data, cases rose from 3.6 lakh in 2022 to 4.8 lakh in 2024 in TN.
Hindustan Times
3 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Chandigarh: 322 houses vacant but PGI staff await allotment
As many as 322 government quarters meant for staff at Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) are lying vacant even as 847 employees are in the waitlist for allotment, an RTI has revealed. PGI accommodates its staff in Sector 12 and 24 but due to the long wait list, the employees are having to put up in rented places nearby, often at a high cost. (HT File) The vacant houses include those meant for faculty as well as non-teaching staff, with nursing officers and others belonging to Group B and C having the longest list of employees awaiting house allotment. PGI accommodates its staff in Sector 12 and 24 but due to the long wait list, the employees are having to put up in rented places nearby, often at a high cost. The RTI, filed by Ashwani Munjal, chairperson of the joint action committee of the PGI contractual workers, shows several houses have remained unallotted since 2017. Yet, the house allotment committee (HAC), which is responsible for distributing them, has met only once in 2025, on July 30, after an 11-month gap since its previous meeting in September 2024. During this meeting, chaired by Prof Arun Kumar Aggarwal, 12 houses were allotted. But the orders for recommendation were passed on August 12, ironically the same day when the response to the RTI was provided. The RTI query was filed on July 9. Delay in fitness report from engg dept The major reason behind the delay in house allotment appears to be the irregular meetings of HAC but the engineering department's failure to provide timely fitness reports for each house is equally to be blamed for the backlog. A letter from the estate branch dated June 16, 2025, noted that while the list of vacant houses had been shared with the engineering department, it had not received the fitness reports. Without these, allotments could not be done. Munjal said that this delay was causing a huge loss to the government exchequer. Not only is PGI missing out on the licence fees and monthly rent from allotted houses, but it is also paying 20% of the basic pay as House Rent Allowance (HRA) to eligible staff each month. Despite repeated attempts, PGIMER director Dr Vivek Lal and deputy director administration Pankaj Rai did not comment. The official spokesperson said that a fact-finding exercise would be needed before providing an explanation.
Mint
3 hours ago
- Mint
ADHD Medicines Reduce Suicide, Crime Risks in Sweeping Study
(Bloomberg) -- Drugs to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder were linked to a reduced risk of suicidal behavior, substance misuse and criminality in the first research of its kind. The findings come amid increasing debate around whether ADHD is being over-diagnosed and therefore over-treated with drugs like Ritalin. The research published in the British Medical Journal on Wednesday did not investigate whether patients are being accurately diagnosed, but it does provide evidence supporting medical treatment. ADHD is characterized by difficulties with concentration and impulse control. Roughly 5% of children and 2.5% of adults are estimated to have the condition, which is also associated with an increased risk of substance misuse and self-harm. The researchers wanted to test whether the risk changed with medication. The study design was meant to closely mirror a randomized clinical trial, considered the gold standard of research. The scientists looked at health registry data from almost 150,000 patients newly diagnosed with ADHD in Sweden. At a two-year follow-up, they found that patients taking medicine had a 17% reduction in suicidal behavior and a 15% drop in substance misuse. They also found declines in the risk for criminality and transport accidents. When looking at the recurrence of these behaviors, there were also benefits linked to the medication. While the trial cannot show direct causation and could be confounded by factors such as ADHD severity, it provides doctors with vital evidence showing that drugs can address and reduce important risks, according to one of the authors. 'These data should inform clinical guidelines, policies and current debates,' said Samuele Cortese, a professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Southampton. The benefit was greater for patients taking stimulant medications than non-stimulants in the study. Stimulants include drugs like Novartis AG's Ritalin, while non-stimulants include Eli Lilly & Co.'s Strattera. The study results echo other similar conclusions, but 'the large sample size, use of a national registry, and more sophisticated analysis give greater confidence in these results that findings aren't explained by something else other than medication use,' said Adam Guastella, a clinical psychologist who works at Sydney Children's Hospital at Westmead and the University of Sydney's Brain and Mind Center. He was not involved in the research. Prescriptions in England for ADHD medicines have increased 18% year on year since the Covid-19 pandemic, according to research published in the BMJ Mental Health this year. The surge is believed to be linked to greater awareness of the condition. More stories like this are available on
