After all, Chief Minister Manohar Joshi cut the red ribbon for the 120-bed building. Perhaps, the residents hoped too soon. For, over 90 per cent of the 4,500 sq km premises, for which construction started eight years ago, is still under lock and key, as only three OPD clinics from the old building have been transferred to the ground floor of the new one. No new staff has been appointed, due to which just seven doctors and a Venereal Disease specialist manage the show at the hospital.

Design-wise too, the building is found to be severely wanting. The delivery room and the ante-natal and post-natal ward are connected only through the lobby meant to seat visitors. This holds true for the labour room and toilet as well.

The delivery room also has no drainagefacility, staffers told Express Newsline. ``Are we expected to allow water tinged with blood to run off in the corridor?'' asked a staffer, pointing to a 1.5' x 1.5' wash basin where babies are supposed to be given their first wash. Male and female surgical ward patients have to share a common toilet.

The design glitches persist even in the case of the operation theatre: an essential activity like autoclaving before an operation will be problematic as there's a pillar bang in the centre of the theatre. And there are two gaping holes in the walls where the airconditioners are supposed to be.

Asked corporation leader Ravi Patil of the Congress, who has written to the CM in this regard, ``If the KDMC doesn't have the staff to run the hospital, why did it bother to construct it all?'' Added a senior staff member, ``The skeletal staff strength which runs the show in the existing 50-bed hospital will have to be spread thin due to the increased bed-capacity.''

The entire staff for the RukminibaiHospital are public health appointees, who are supposed to carry out activities like family planning, immunisation and collecting water samples to monitor the spread of jaundice. ``We are funded by the Central government under the assumption that our services are being utilised in health posts. The truth is, we are forever bound to hospital duties,'' said a doctor.

Chief Medical Officer M D Kulkarni, who holds charge of both the KDMC health department and the hospital, told Express Newsline that he had received a verbal assurance from Urban Development Secretary Nand Lal to clear 27 posts for the new hospital building soon. ``If everything works out, we may wrap up the selection procedure by mid-March,'' he said.

Admitting that the planning for the new building was flawed, Dr Kulkarni stated that ``The construction had already been completed before I took over.'' He assured that modifications were being undertaken in problem areas to ensure smooth functioning in the hospital.