Nizamia Hospital Hyderabad

The 80 year old Nizamia Tibbi Hospital and College building, popularly known as Government Unani Hospital, is now in an appalling condition as the renovation works came to a grinding halt in midway causing inconvenience to patients and medical staff.

The renovation and restoration work that was started a year ago is being held up for last five months by the construction company citing the fund crunch and delay in fund release from the concerned authorities. 

The immediate effect of this is visible as the number of patients visiting the hospital has come down. Especially the number of in-patients came down for past several months. The hospital provides Unani method of treatment for diseases related to ophthalmic, ENT, dental and others. It is specially preferred for the paralytic health issues as the hospital has the oldest method of treatment for it. The superintendent of the hospital Mohammed Rafi Ahmed said that the number of patients has decreased and consequently the amount for medicinal purchase also came down considerably.

Elaborating on the issue, he said that the usual number of out-patients was from 300 to 700 per day at the hospital. Sometimes the number of patients may reach to 1,000 or 1,200 per day, he added. He lamented that the patient foot fall decreased considerably due to the inconveniences in the hospital with construction and renovation going on for last one and a half year. So is the case of in-patients here. He said that the authorities reduced the amount allocated for the purchase of prepared medicine from the Government Unani Pharmacy to only one lakh that was used to be Rs 3 lakh earlier.

An attendant of a patient at the hospital Syed Mohsin expressed his anguish over the authoritarian apathy in the hospital. He said, “The scaffold will surely detract the patients coming for treatment and we don’t see a hospital atmosphere here.” The A P Health, Medical Housing and Heal Infrastructure Development Corporation (APHMIDC) had started the restoration work here somewhere in April 2013 and work was scheduled to be completed by December 2013. Government sanctioned Rs 3 crore among the total allocated budget of Rs 4.2 crore for restoration work. The restoration work was outsourced to a city-based company. 

Until December last year, the work was going on smoothly but later it was stopped after remaining Rs 1.2 crore budget was reportedly stuck.
Sources reveal that the contractor who took up the restoration work at the hospital left the work incomplete after running pillar to post for procuring the remaining due fund. APHMIDC officials were not available to comment. The Hospital was established in 1938 by the seventh Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan with his personal fund for the benefit of general public.