AIIMS Bathinda OPD gets 102 patients on first day

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Advertisement

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, December 24

Around 102 patients on Tuesday got their health check-up done on the first day of the OPD services at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Bathinda. It was inaugurated by Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan and Union Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Monday.

Of them, 73 were men and 29 were women. The general medicine department witnessed the maximum number of patients (32) followed by 19 at the orthopaedics department, 14 at the ENT, 13 at the dermatology, eight at the ophthalmology, three each at surgical oncology, and paediatrics, two each at the neurology, psychiatry and radiation oncology departments, one each at dentistry, general surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology and urology.

The AIIMS was approved under Phase V of the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) of Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India, in July, 2016. The cost of the project is around Rs 925 crore. It will be completed by June 2020.The foundation stone of the AIIMS building in Bathinda was laid in November 2016.

AIIMS will be a 750-bed premier medical institute, which will come up on 177 acres. It will have 10 specialty and 11 super-specialty departments, besides 16 ultra-modern operation theatres. The medical and nursing colleges, which will come up at AIIMS, have been allotted 100 and 60 seats, respectively. The first batch of MBBS of AIIMS Bathinda started this year on Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS), Faridkot campus, on a temporary basis as the AIIMS campus is under construction. All OPDs will work from 9 am onwards and registration will be from 8 am to 11 am. The pathology microbiology and chemotherapy facilities will be added very soon.

There is also a provision of providing medicines through Amrit Drug Store, a Government of India initiative, at discounted rates. As of now the Ayushman Bharat scheme will not be implemented as only the OPD services are being provided. The scheme will be implemented once the indoor services are started in November 2020. The PGIMER, Chandigarh, has been entrusted with the responsibility of mentoring AIIMS Bathinda.

The orthopaedic, general surgery (including surgical oncology and urologist paediatric surgery consultation), general medicine, ENT, ophthalmology, psychiatry, dermatology, obstetrics and gynaecology, dental, radiology (X-ray Ultrasound and Colour Doppler), basic biochemistry and basic hematology tests services also started at AIIMS from today. A 45-bed trauma centre would also start functioning next year, besides the medical and nursing colleges.