With the redevelopment plans for Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) ready for execution, each of the 5,462 beds in the refurbished facility will cost Rs 76 lakh, which is less than what adding a bed at any other government medical college and hospital in the state, except the one at Darbhanga, has cost in recent times.

According to documents accessed by The Telegraph, the most expensive per-bed bill in the state was at Anugrah Narayan Medical College and Hospital in Gaya, where adding 176 beds under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) during financial year 2015-16 cost Rs 1.14 crore each.

Similarly, adding 200 beds at Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital in Bhagalpur under the Yojana in 2015-16 cost Rs 1 crore per bed, while adding 211 beds at PMCH under the same scheme that year had cost Rs 94.79 lakh per bed.

“Under the renovation and upgrading project of PMCH, the addition of each bed will cost Rs 76.01 lakh. It is among the lowest costs when compared to addition of beds at other government medical colleges and hospitals in the last five to six years,” a senior health department official said on condition of anonymity.

“We had added 195 beds to Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital in Muzaffarpur under PMSSY in 2013 and each of them cost around Rs 77 lakh. Altogether 210 beds were added under the same scheme in the same year at Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital at a cost of Rs 71.43 lakh each,” the health department official added.

The PMCH redevelopment project, ordered by chief minister Nitish Kumar, proposes to turn the PMCH into a state-of-the-art facility in three phases over five years. It will also have 250 MBBS seats. The entire renovation work will cost Rs 5,540 crore.

Previously the target was to complete it in seven years, but it was reduced to five on the directions of the chief minister. At present, the PMCH has 1,750 beds and 150 MBBS seats.

The first phase will see an expenditure of Rs 2,039 crore, while the second and third phases will run up bills of Rs 1,772 crore and 1,729 crore respectively.

The first phase will create 30.13 lakh square feet of space, which will include two hospital blocks, a nurses’ hostel, doctors’ residences, girls’ hostel, and central utility (laundry, blood bank, patient-stay facilities and multi-level parking). The rest of the facilities will come in the next two phases.

The detailed project report (DPR) for the PMCH revamp has been prepared by Delhi-based architecture consultants Suresh Goyal and Associates under the guidance of Bihar Medical Services and Infrastructure Corporation Limited, which is a government agency. The project will be executed in engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) mode.

PMCH is the oldest medical college and hospital in the state, and was established over 48.40 acres of land on the banks of the Ganga in 1925 when the British still ruled the country.

After redevelopment it will become world’s second largest and the country’s biggest hospital in terms of bed capacity.

Currently, Chang Gung Memorial hospital in Taiwan is considered the largest hospital in the world with a capacity of 10,000 beds. The second largest is the West China Medical Centre of Sichuan University in China, with a capacity of 4,300 beds.

The PMCH will not be closed during the redevelopment work, and will keep catering to patients who come here for treatment. All construction work will be done with the help of latest technology, and will provide ready to use facilities.

After redevelopment, the hospital will have its own fire-fighting and electrical sub-stations, sewage treatment plant, effluent treatment plant, modular operation theatre, nurse call system, medical gas pipeline system; pneumatic tube system for transit of medicines, pathological samples and test analysis reports, integrated shredder and sterilizer, central sterile services department, pneumatic waste and laundry collection system, multi-level car-parking, rooftop helipad, residences for students, nurses, paramedics and doctors within the campus, sports complex, auditorium and other facilities.

The equipment at PMCH will cost over Rs 883 crore. At present the floor area ratio at PMCH is 0.90, which will be increased to 2.50 and multi-storey buildings will replace the present ones that are mostly G+1 or G+2 buildings.