Jodhpur’s Umaid Hospital to celebrate 90th birthday with week-long events

Jodhpur: Western Rajasthan’s oldest and biggest women and children’s hospital, the Umaid Hospital in Jodhpur, will be celebrating nine decades of its birth with week-long programmes from September 22 to 28. Tagged as “Birthday of the Birthplace”, the schedule of programmes is designed to reach out to people, felicitate them, and offer them better services.Superintendent of the hospital, Afzal Hakim, said that nearly 10 lakh children have been born in the hospital in the past nine decades and the week-long celebration is in a way a celebration of all these births. “This is the first time that a hospital is observing its birthday. As this is a hospital where children are born, we have tagged the occasion as Birthday of the Birthplace,” said Afzal.During this week, a gift hamper will be given to each mother on birth of her child and she will be given a ceremonial discharge from the hospital, with staff escorting her all the way to the exit. Afzal said that a host of awareness and outreach programmes, including on women and child health and hygiene, visits to girls’ schools and colleges, exhibitions and seminars, skits, etc, will be organised and the hospital will also take some unique initiatives. “These initiatives are for improvement of services, which primarily include on-bed vaccination of the newborn, birth certificate of the child along with discharge from the hospital, and distribution of free gowns to women in labour at the time of admission,” Hakim said.The hospital has also invited families who have had three generations born in this hospital to felicitate them.Built in 1938 by the then ruler of Marwar, Umaid Singh, the administration of the hospital went to SN Medical College in 1968. Having 166 beds then, the hospital has grown to 817 beds now and caters to people in seven districts of Marwar region. Deputy principal of SN medical college, Arun Vaishya, said that an extensive expansion and modernization place worth Rs 12 crore had been laid out for the hospital which includes provision for a 6-bed ICU in the OPD, gynaecology emergency, and a fully-equipped new diagnostics wing.

Govt plans 300-bed hospital near SPR

The Gurgaon Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) has handed over a project to construct a government hospital to the health department. The original plan was for a 500-bed hospital with super-speciality wings, but now the health department plans to build a 200-300 bed facility. The proposal will be sent to the state government for approval, and once ready, the hospital will provide affordable healthcare to the people. The project has faced delays since it was first announced in 2016.

Hospitals grapple with waterlogging

Heavy rainfall in Indore has caused waterlogging and seepages in buildings, resulting in the shifting of wards in MY hospital, the largest public facility in the state. The basement of MY hospital was flooded with over three feet of water, leading to the relocation of 25 patients. The prisoners were moved to a ward near the burn unit with police deployment to prevent escape, while the destitute elderly were shifted to another ward. The newly constructed MTH hospital also experienced flooding in its basement.

Man creates ruckus at hospital

A 25-year-old man from Manipur caused chaos at a hospital in Kochi after regaining consciousness. He damaged property and ran through the corridors before being brought under control. The man was later taken to another hospital by the police. In other news, a man was arrested for vandalizing a hospital in Perumbavoor, and five individuals were booked for causing a disturbance at a restaurant in Ludhiana. Other incidents included protests by the family of a deceased patient in Prayagraj and fines imposed on four hospitals in Rajkot.