Crumbling infra: 3 years old, chunks continue to fall off govt hosp ceiling

Noida: A series of incidents of chunks of false ceiling falling at the District Hospital over the past week have exposed the poor quality of construction at the hospital building. While no injuries were reported, these incidents call the patients’ safety into question.A false ceiling fell on the sixth floor of the hospital at the dialysis unit on Thursday. On the same day, another large cemented tile at the main gate of the hospital fell while it was raining. Thursday’s incident was the third such incident this week, with false ceilings falling on the eighth floor on Monday and the second floor on Tuesday.Officials said they are carrying out repair work along with a survey of the entire eight-floor hospital to check for areas of concern for the patients’ safety.Dr Renu Agarwal, chief medical superintendent of the District Hospital, said that she has written to the Noida Authority informing them of the incidents, but is yet to receive a reply from the responsible officials.Despite several attempts, Authority officials could not be reached for a comment.The District Hospital, which was previously functioning from the Sector 30 campus of the Post Graduate Institute of Child Health (Child PGI), had moved to this building in January, earlier this year.The District Hospital building was originally constructed by the Noida Authority at a cost of Rs 519 crore and construction was completed in 2020, just before the Covid-19 pandemic. Until recently, the building was being used as a dedicated Covid hospital in the city.Along with the dialysis ward, the sixth floor is also home to the surgery department, ophthalmologists and orthopaedics