Though the Telangana state government has spent more than Rs. 65 crore for the construction of new hospital facility in addition to the existing old hospital, the authorities of the Niloufer Children’s Hospital are not able to utilize it because of lack of doctors.

The Niloufer hospital is one of the most famous pediatric hospitals in south India, which was constructed way back during the Nizam era and it has a capacity of 500 beds.  But over the years as the population is rising, this capacity is not enough and a proposal for the construction of another hospital was mooted during the Congress government in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh. After persistent efforts, the new facility with an additional capacity of 200 beds was constructed last year and all the facilities like Pediatric intensive care unit, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Modern labour rooms and surgery with latest equipments have been installed to render emergency services. But till date, the authorities are not able to utilize these facilities to its fullest extend due to shortage of additional doctors.

According to Hospital sources, the new building, for which the foundation stone was laid way back in 2003, took more than 12 years to come to the final shape. Though it is designed to accommodate about 200 beds exclusively for children, it is not being utilized fully due to shortage of doctors. This is the highest in any government run hospital in south India. In addition to a total of 200 beds earmarked for pregnant women, there are about 60 beds for pediatric and another 40 beds for surgical unit.

As the hospital is very famous, every day more than 1000 patients come from within and outside of Hyderabad. People even from Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh come for emergency healthcare needs particularly for the small children suffering from various ailments.

Though the state health and medical welfare department gave the highest priority for the construction and completion of the new hospital, since inauguration last year, the facility is left dysfunctional due to shortage of doctor to attend the patients. “We had asked for about 60 more doctors to be newly appointed in addition to the existing strength of about 160 doctors. But, there has been no response from the health department. We are still persuading the government and very soon we will able to find a solution for the facility to bring it into fully functional,” said a senior doctor at the hospital.