Sikkim, India’s second-smallest state, now has the country’s ‘second-biggest’ government hospital after All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, according to the state’s chief minister Pawan Chamling. The new Sir Thutob Namgyal Memorial Multi-Speciality Hospital is located at Sochayganag and is spread over 15 acres of land. The hospital was built over a period of 9 years and the overall cost of the project is Rs 1,281 crore.
With a capacity of over 1000 beds, the hospital will provide free treatment to the residents of the state and will also help its neighbouring regions of Darjeeling, north Bengal and the northeast.
According to Chamling,
“The new hospital will start functioning from February 1 and the government has appointed 47 regular doctors and 261 nurses for the hospital and is in the process of appointing super specialists, specialists and paramedics.”
It will replace the 100-year-old hospital of the same name which is located at the heart of Gangtok and is built to withstand earthquakes measuring 8 on the Richter scale. The 10-storeyed building has 13 lifts and houses all general, surgical and speciality departments as well as 23 different operation theatres. It is equipped with sophisticated instruments including MRI, CT scanners, orthopantomogram machine and Doppler fetal monitor. Eight 24×7 buses will ferry patients and attendants to and from the state capital free of cost.
Now, the state government plans to build a medical college adjacent to the newly-inaugurated hospital.
