Rajasthan Local Self Government Minister on 13th January directed officials to construct separate out patient department (OPD) blocks for JK Lon Hospital and Maharao Bhimsingh Hospital in Kota district to ensure patients do not face problems.

This comes in the backdrop of more than 100 infant deaths at JK Lon Hospital last month that led to widespread criticism. He chaired a meeting with officials at MBS Hospital on Sunday and instructed them to make an assessment by discussing the requirement of necessary equipment and building expansion for facilities in both the hospitals, according to an official statement. He also instructed the officials to change the facade of the main building in JK Lon Hospital and include necessary facilities in the new OPD block including adequate space for parking vehicles.

Along with the proposed OPD block, a neonatal intensive care unit and paediatric intensive care unit ward at JK Lon Hospital was also proposed and Dhariwal instructed the engineers of the Urban Improvement Trust to submit a report under the Smart Cities scheme.