PGI wants panel meet for nod to MBBS course

Tribune News Service

Naina Mishra

Chandigarh, February 3

The Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGI) has written to the Union Health Ministry urging it to hold a meeting of the Standing Finance Committee to expedite budget approval for start of MBBS course at the institute.

The PGI had already held a committee meeting last year, wherein it had approved newly upgraded hospital information system (HIS-2), which is expected to replace the 17-year-old software at the institute. The PGI’s committee is headed by Rajesh Bhushan, Secretary (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare).

Expedite approval to budget, centre urged

• In June, Standing Academic Committee approved a medical college for MBBS course & a 500-bed hospital on PGI’s Sarangpur campus
• Agenda for course needs to be tabled at meet of Standing Finance Committee, headed by Secretary, Ministry of Health, for budget approval
• Further, final approval for upgraded hospital information system (HIS-2), to replace 17-year-old existing software, is awaited at panel meeting

Kumar Gaurav Dhawan, Deputy Director, PGI, said: “Although we have held a Standing Finance Committee meeting this financial year, we have requested the ministry to hold another one so that MBBS course approval can be granted. The Sarangpur project has been put on hold until a decision on budget is taken.”

In June last year, the Standing Academic Committee (SAC) had approved the setting up of a medical college for MBBS course along with a 500-bed hospital, an extension of the Nehru Hospital, having all clinical departments required to run the MBBS course. The course needs to be tabled at the committee meeting for budget approval from the Centre.

The PGI had proposed a state-of-the-art medical college with intake of 100 students for MBBS course on its upcoming Sarangpur campus here. The new 500-bed hospital was proposed to be attached to the college with requisite number of beds for respective clinical department as per the National Medical Council guidelines.

The final approval for HIS-2 is also awaited at the committee meeting, wherein the PGI will present a roadmap for the implementation of the software in stages.

Once approved, the HIS-2 will improve technology-based patient and health services, its queue management system and provide easy integration of Centre’s digital missions. Many of the institute’s patient-friendly projects, including SMS facility for laboratory tests, online payments of treatment, online registration of outpatient departments are dependent on the system and are facing implementation issues.

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