LUCKNOW, Sept. 7 -- Construction of a 27-bed High Dependency Unit (HDU) has finally begun at Shyama Prasad Mukherjee (Civil) Hospital after a wait of two-and-a-half years and several revisions to the building plan. The two-storey unit will come up on the hospital campus, with 16 beds on the first floor and 11 beds on the second floor. Uttar Pradesh Projects Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) has been appointed as the executing agency. The HDU block will have dedicated treatment areas, doctors' duty rooms, nursing staff rooms and other essential facilities for closely monitoring seriously ill patients who do not require intensive care but need more care than general wards. Dr DC Pandey, chief medical superintendent of the hospital, said the project is expected to be completed by July 2027. Once operational, the unit will strengthen critical-care capacity at the district hospital level. The need for an HDU at Civil Hospital has been pending for a long time. The proposal underwent several changes in its layout and cost estimates before receiving final clearance. The new facility is expected to benefit patients whose conditions are deteriorating, post-operative patients and those with multiple comorbidities. Officials said the HDU is expected to reduce the patient load at major government referral hospitals in Lucknow, including King George's Medical University (KGMU), Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences (RMLIMS), Lok Bandhu Raj Narain Hospital and Balrampur Hospital, once the services become operational. KGMU, which remains the largest referral centre in the city, has 300 HDU beds across its facilities and a total bed capacity of around 4,500, according to its spokesperson, Prof KK Singh. Similarly, RMLIMS has a 20-bed HDU on the first floor of its building, while the institute has a total capacity of 1,100 beds, according to data shared by institute officials. Health department officials said strengthening HDUs at district-level hospitals such as Civil Hospital will improve patient management and reduce unnecessary referrals to tertiary-care centres, especially during peak seasons of vector-borne diseases and respiratory infections....