PATNA, May 3 -- The century old state-run Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH) will add around 1,050 patient beds to its existing capacity of 1,750, with CM Nitish Kumar scheduled to inaugurate on Saturday two of the four building blocks of the first phase of the three-phase hospital redevelopment project, which will make it the second largest hospital in the world, having 5,460 beds, at an estimated cost of Rs.5,500 crore. "The two building towers, each of nine stories, will have 22 modular operation theatres, 65-bed intensive care unit, 46-bed post-operation room, two private suites, 10 deluxe and 26 private rooms for patients, in addition to a helipad," said its medical superintendent Dr IS Thakur. "We will begin this month with outdoor patient department (OPD) of eight disciplines, including cardiology, medicine, eye, ENT (ear-nose-throat), preventive and social medicine (PSM), geriatrics, paediatrics and obstetrics and gynaecology, in the two towers made available to us on Saturday," said Dr Thakur. The superintendent, however, said total 27 OPD departments and odd, including those of broad specialty and super specialty, would be shifted to the new towers in a phased manner over the next few months, depending on when the space is made available with all requisite clearances. "We will shift the medicine emergency and medicine indoor departments to the new towers after the eight OPD departments become functional. The emergency medicine beds will go up from the existing 55 to 100. Similarly, the indoor medicine department will have between 260 and 270 beds," said Dr Thakur. In shifting the OPD services, the medicine emergency and medicine indoor departments to the new building blocks, the hospital will also reorganise its central utility block (CUB), which is meant for support services like laundry, security, information technology, electrical, etc. "We will have the surgical store on the ground floor, the OPD of cardio-thoracic vascular surgery (CTVS) and paediatric surgery, PMR, neurology, urology, tuberculosis and chest/gastroenterology; the blood bank on the second and third floors, OPD of skin and venereal diseases on the fourth, drug distribution centre on the fifth, clinical pathology on the sixth and security on the eight floor, with L&T, the construction firm, for the time being retaining the seventh floor of the central utility block," said Dr Thakur. The phase-wise shifting of the OPD departments will also pave the way for initiation of work on the second phase of the hospital redevelopment project that will add another 1,800 beds. The third and final phase of the project will add another 1,750 beds for patients, said Dr Thakur. Kumar had laid the foundation stone of the PMCH redevelopment project on February 8, 2021, with a completion deadline of 2027-28. He inaugurated the CUB, nursing hostel and the multi-level car parking on February 27, 2024. A dream project of Kumar, he wants the PMCH redevelopment project to be completed as early as possible. The CM visited the hospital to review its progress on November 22, 2021, when he visited the Jeevak hostel, and again on December 16, 2023, when he made an unscheduled visit to the hospital....