Health Minister K.G. Arunraj said the 262-bed Sholinganallur Government Peripheral Hospital will be upgraded into an emergency obstetric and newborn care centre with round-the-clock maternity services.
Sholinganallur’s government hospital has 262 beds and 83 trainee doctors.
Health and Family Welfare Minister K.G. Arunraj, who inspected the hospital on Tuesday, 10 November, said it would be upgraded into a CEmONC centre, the health system’s label for a hospital equipped to handle obstetric and newborn emergencies at any hour. That would let pregnant women from the area give birth closer to home instead of travelling to the Government Kasturba Gandhi Hospital for Women and Children in Triplicane. “Necessary steps will be taken to establish the required facilities,” he said. The postings of the hospital’s specialist doctors and its trainee doctors will be streamlined so the facility can run round the clock.
Reacting to the news, our reporter spoke to Kalaiselvi, a resident of Semmancheri. She said that until now, families like hers had to travel all the way to Guindy or Royapettah in an emergency, and that care will now be much closer. She is expecting her second child in four months.
In Tamil the hospital is சோழிங்கநல்லூர் அரசு மருத்துவமனை (Sholinganallur Government Hospital). No completion date for the upgrade has been published.
Attendance registers were checked
The minister walked through the outpatient wing, accident and emergency, and the ophthalmology and dental departments, and looked at sanitation. He checked staff attendance registers. Officials were told to bring in biometric attendance monitoring.
He also said Government Orders would be issued shortly for the doctors, nurses and technical staff that the state Budget announced for urban primary health centres. On dengue, Arunraj said the disease is under control in Tamil Nadu and asked residents to stop water stagnating near their homes and to cooperate with mosquito-control workers.
For Context
Tamil Nadu began its CEmONC programme in 2004 under the Tamil Nadu Health Systems Project, according to the Directorate of Medical and Rural Health Services, whose programme page sets out three phases between 2005 and 2008 adding 48, 32 and 28 centres. The National Health Mission’s district list names four such centres in Chennai: Kilpauk Medical College Hospital, Government RSRM Lying-in Hospital, the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Hospital for Women and Children, and the Government Kasturba Gandhi Hospital.
Sholinganallur is on neither list. The Triplicane hospital that its mothers travel to now is on the National Health Mission’s list.
Checked against official sources on 12 November 2026.
Sources
- Remarks of Health and Family Welfare Minister K.G. Arunraj during inspection of Sholinganallur Government Peripheral Hospital, 10 November 2026
- CEmONC activities (maternal and child health), Directorate of Medical and Rural Health Services, Tamil Nadu
- District-wise list of CEmONC centres, National Health Mission Tamil Nadu
