A day after Jharkhand's health secretary labelled MGM hospital as one of the country’s worst, the state-run facility in Sakchi on Friday made an attempt to plug the glaring gaps.

Deputy superintendent Dr Nakul Chaudhary said the tender process for repair of air-conditioners in the intensive care unit was nearing completion. “The selected agency should be able to begin repair work from Monday,” he added.

Health secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni, a 1995-batch IAS officer, who had carried out a surprise inspection at the 500-bed referral hospital on Thursday evening, had taken MGM officials to task for not repairing the six ICU air-conditioners that have been lying defunct since November.

Chastised by Kulkarni over truancy, the hospital management has directed all senior doctors to strictly follow the OPD duty roster. “The superintendent (Dr S.N. Jha) has asked the doctors to be present in the OPD during evening hours too,” Dr Chaudhary said.

The hospital has eight OPDs, one each for medicine, surgery, orthopaedics, gynaecology, eye, ENT, paediatrics and mental health. The OPD hours are 9am to 1pm and again from 4pm to 6pm.

The health secretary had taken serious umbrage over littering of the premises, unattended garbage and dirty linen. The MGM authorities have started a fresh tender process to select a new agency for housekeeping and sanitation.

“The contract of the existing agency, which has failed to mend its ways despite repeated warnings, will be terminated once the new agency is finalised. We also plan to blacklist the existing agency by December 31,” said Chaudhary.

The hospital authorities said all the 10 oxygen cylinders at the emergency ward were in operating condition. However, they admitted that there was not enough room to store more cylinders on the premises.

Health secretary Kulkarni, before leaving for Ranchi on Friday evening, also paid a two-hour visit to MGM Medical College in Dimna. He inspected the multi-disciplinary research units, virology lab, preventive and social medicine wing, microbiology and biochemistry labs, common room for students and an under-construction e-library.

Kulkarni is learnt to have asked college principal Dr A.C. Akhauri to levy penalty on the construction firm for delaying completion of the e-library, which has missed its mid-December deadline.

He has also sought a report on the state of affair at the forensic laboratory and advised the principal to co-ordinate with the MGM alumni for suggestions on ways to improve the college.