Bathinda AIIMS to be operational by May 2020

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 2

Bathinda AIIMS is among six new such institutions to become operational by 2020 under a Health Ministry Scheme which the Union Cabinet on Wednesday extended by a year.

The Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojna (PMSSY) meant to strengthen healthcare infrastructure was on Wednesday approved for extension beyond 2017-18 to 2019-20. This will entail a cost of Rs 14,832 crore. The cost of setting up one AIIMS is roughly Rs 1,000-1,200 crore.

The scheme aims at setting up 20 AIIMS across India. Of these, six AIIMS have already started operations and are working in Raipur, Patna, Jodhpur, Bhopal, Rishikesh and Bhubaneshwar.

Among AIIMS targeted to be completed by 2020 and 2021 are Bathinda by May 2020, Rae Bareli by March, Mangalgiri in Andhra Pradesh, Kalyani in Bengal and Nagpur by February 2020, Gorakhpur in UP by March, Kamrup in Assam by April 2021, and Bilaspur by September 2021.

The other AIIMS institutions for which Cabinet approval is yet to be obtained are AIIMS in Samba (Jammu), Awantipora (Kashmir), Deogarh (Jharkhand).

The site selection process is still underway in AIIMS to be established in Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Gujarat. The same PMSSY will also upgrade 73 existing state government colleges into superspecialty institutions.

Health Ministry sources said upgrading of 15 such colleges had been done, 36 would be completed by 2018-end and the remaining 22 in 2019-20.

The establishment of each new AIIMS will add 100 undergraduate and 60 BSc nursing seats. Each AIIMS has 20 superspecialty sections and 750 beds. The upgrade of one state government hospital will lead to the addition of 10 superspecialty departments to each such institution and an average of 15 additional PG seats.

The government data shows each functional AIIMS caters to around 1,500 OPD patients a day and 1,000 inpatients a month.