Covid facility to be developed as full-fledged hospital

A specialty hospital will be constructed on the land provided for Tata Covid hospital, which was built using prefabricated shipping containers during the Covid-19 pandemic at Thekkil, near Chattanchal, in Kasaragod, C.H. Kunhambu, MLA, has said.

The hospital was a temporary arrangement during the pandemic outbreak to accommodate patients, he told The Hindu. It could not be a permanent structure for a hospital. The containers were unsuitable for climatic conditions and over the period had become unusable.

“Running the hospital inside the containers has many limitations such as bringing in big machinery. It required air-conditioning, which escalated the operations cost. Besides water is seeping through containers and the foundation has also come apart. The only solution is to construct a new hospital in the available space.”

He said the government had allocated ₹23 crore to develop the facility to a specialty hospital. The paper works for transferring the land had been sent to the Revenue department. “Once this is done, the land will be transferred to the Health department.”

He dismissed reports that the containers would be demolished and removed. The facility had five acres and a hospital could be constructed without removing these containers. It could either be put to better use here itself, he said.

The 551-bed Tata Covid hospital was established using 128 prefabricated shipping containers three years back and was expected to last 30 years.

The District Legal Service Authority, in a report submitted to the Supreme Court, had cited that containers were in unusable condition. The report, citing the leaking rooms, durability of the floor built using plywood, and its dangers, had said that running the hospital in its present condition would be inconvenient and expensive.

Meanwhile, there is criticism against the government for not putting these containers, installed at a cost of ₹60 crore, to proper use.

BJP leader K. Surendran blamed the present condition on the apathy of the government. He said the government did not carry out maintenance at regular intervals and it was left to idle after the number of Covid patients came down. The Hindu