Rs 1,475-cr boost for PGI expansion

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 20

In a major boost to the expansion of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh, the Union Government has approved three most-sought-after projects worth Rs 1,475 crore for the region’s premier medical and research institution.

While the Advanced Mother and Child Centre and the Advanced Neurosciences Centre will come up in Chandigarh, a satellite centre of the PGI will be set up at Una in Himachal Pradesh. The Delegated Investment Board of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare approved these projects at its meeting in New Delhi on Friday. Besides senior functionaries of the Health Ministry, representatives of the NITI Aayog and the Finance Ministry, and the PGI Director, Dr Jagat Ram, attended the meeting.

The development assumes significance as the present mother and child centre and neurosciences centre at the PGI are hard-pressed and overloaded with patient rush three to four times their capacity. As a result, a majority of the critical patients fail to get timely and requisite intervention. The 300-bedded PGI satellite centre in Una will help cater to the patients of the Himachal Pradesh belt close to their doorstep and in turn will reduce the patient load on the PGI.

The PGI Director, Dr Jagat Ram, told The Tribune here today that all three approved projects would come up in the next three years. “It is a major boost not only for us but the entire region, which will stand to benefit from the new projects,” he said while thanking Union Health Minister JP Nadda for acceding to the PGI’s request.

The projects

Advanced Mother and Child Centre 

The Advanced Mother and Child Centre (AMCC), costing Rs 485 crore, will be a 300-bedded centre. It will help provide a quantum jump in achieving obstetric and neonatal tertiary care. It will establish new facilities such as the HDU, the ICU, foetal medicine unit, robotic surgery, NICU with level 4 services, human milk bank, advanced infertility services and reproductive endocrinology. This state-of-the-art advanced centre will be the first of its kind in the northern region. The centre will also enhance the training of health professionals by acting as an advanced simulation and skill training centre. It will also bring up world-class advanced research facilities. The proposed centre will make a substantial contribution towards reduction of maternal, prenatal and neonatal mortality in the region.

Advanced Neurosciences Centre 

The Advanced Neurosciences Centre (ANC), costing Rs 495.31 crore, will be another 300-bedded centre, which will help create state-of-the-art facilities to offer timely as well as the best treatment for neurological and neurosciences disorders. It will 

provide increased bed strength, more OTs, ICUs and ventilators and affordable healthcare. This centre will provide additional facilities such as BrainSuite, mapping, invasive neurophysiological techniques and advanced imaging technology. 

The centre will act as a training centre for neuro specialists from across the country.

Una centre to cost Rs 495 cr

The PGI satellite centre at Una, costing Rs 495 crore, on the analogy of the satellite centre at Sangrur in Punjab, will be 300-bedded state-of-the-art hospital aimed at reducing the referrals to the PGI and providing quality healthcare facilities to the people of Himachal Pradesh. The centre will provide specialised services in the departments of medicine, gynaecology, general surgery, paediatrics, ophthalmology, ENT, dental, radiology and dermatology among others. The centre will help society through improved survival, reduced disability, better rehabilitation, improved quality of life and affordable quality healthcare to the people.