CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu health department has decided to delay the opening of healthcare services for elderly at the National Institute of Ageing on King Institute of Preventive Medicine and Research campus in Chennai due to the poor condition of a three-year-old building meant to house the institute.
The public works department must certify the building as safe for use, health minister Ma Subramanian said on Saturday. After inspecting the building with a team of officials, Subramanian said, “The building does not look like it was built just three years ago. The plastering had come off most walls probably because the amount of cement used was inadequate,” he told reporters. “We have decided to ask PWD engineers to check if the stability of the building is good. Once they certify the building as safe for hospital use, the geriatric hospital will start functioning. We were planning to start services in 10 days, but we don’t mind delaying it even by a month. It is better to be safe than sorry,” he said.
