The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) declared the Osmania General Hospital (OGH) as unsafe. The structure is over a century old and has had several incidents of roof plaster falling and injuring the people.
The GHMC’s Assistant City Planner sent a notice to the hospital authorities explaining the structure was no longer safe for occupation. The notice also made it clear that the authorities would be held responsible in case of any untoward incidents.
This notice leaves the OGH authorities in a difficult position as they need to decide where to temporarily shift the hospital. Structural engineers from JNTU were among the first to point out that OGH was unsafe.
Chairman of OGH Dr. R. Pandu Naik explains, “It will take at least two years to construct the new building. Till then, working out of this old heritage building is not sustainable and is unsafe for all. The hospital in its entirety has to be shifted on a temporary basis to a nearby government building.”
The heritage building houses about 500 patients at once with vital medical departments. Temporarily moving the hospital will not be an easy task according to the OGH authorities who continue to run the hospital in structure likely to collapse.