Himachal Gets AIIMS

Y.S. Rana

The writer is a Hamirpur based Himachali settled in Chandigarh

With laying of foundation stone of AIIMS at Kothipura in Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh by Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on October 3 it is seen as arrival of ‘achhe din’ in health sector of the state. It will be a step towards equitable healthcare in the state. Coming years new facilities and equipment will be unveiled with the potential of healthcare tourism as the new sunshine industry in the state. AIIMS will bring well-trained doctors with considerable international exposure, well-established super- speciality system of treatment, all inducing us a pride about healthcare’s new place under the sun. There is little doubt that healthcare in the state will shine like never before.

“We must acknowledge that quality healthcare is a fundamental right and a privilege,” says Dr T. S. Mahant, a renowned cardiologist of international fame. While talking to Himachal This Week he further said that thought the state has five medical colleges yet AIIMS is quite different. Himachal Pradesh is least urbanised and had little or no medical facilities compared to other states. Most of the cases are either referred to Fortis in Kangra district or PGI in Chandigarh. Tanda Medical institute is languishing AIIMS will provide a major impetus to the healthcare and education to its population. With its multiple disciplines, it will herald the entry of the state to comprehensive development and growth, said Dr Raj Bahadur.  It will provide much needed tertiary medical services to its population. Not having access to quality healthcare is equivalent to not having healthcare at all.

Most of the medical college hospitals showcasing advances are located in cities far beyond the reach of the average rural people. Having accessed these hallowed portals, the common man has to then dig deep into his pockets to pay for their services. It has been found that access to such state of the art healthcare is usually directly proportional to one’s ability to pay. Need of the hour is to complete the project time so there has to be, inevitably, a trickle down effect that will also benefit less privileged members of the communities we live in.

With inputs from Ashwani Pandit/Bilaspur

Spread Over 1229 Bighas

The state government has identified 1229 bighas of land and of this chunk of 681 bigha has been transferred by the state government. Process to transfer 635 bighas of balance land is in progress. The 750-bed hospital will be built at a cost of approximately Rs 1350 crore. In addition to healthcare, it will also provide medical education at the under graduate and post graduate level besides nursing.

Seven AIIMS In India

There are only seven AIIMS in the country. Bilaspur has been sanctioned AIIMS along with Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Assam. At present, over all availability of MBBS seats in Himachal Pradesh is 700 against 42,169 across the country. The government is striving to achieve the target of doctor-patient ratio 1:1000 by 2021 which currently is 1:2000. To achieve this target Himachal Pradesh needs 7,000 doctors by 2021.

Facilities Offered…

750 Bed Hospital

Hospitals: The premier institution AIIMS at Bilaspur will have 750 bed facility. It will include 300 bed super speciality, 320 bed general speciality, 30 bed Ayush, 15 Operation theatre, 50 bed intensive care unit (ICU) and 50 bed emergency trauma.

Departments: the institute will have various departments including department of Anatomy, Biochemistry, Physiology, Pathology, Microbiology, Pharmacology, Forensic Medicine and Community Medicine etc. Besides this there will also be facility of library, discussion hall, animal holding area, research common laboratories, examination hall, administration and cafeteria etc in the institute.

Medical College

Facility: AIIMS will have healing garden, nursing college of capacity of 60 students, medical college of the capacity of 100 students, 750 people capacity auditorium and a dharamshala of the capacity of 160 people.

Special: Special precautions will be taken to axe down minimum number of tress for the construction of facilities for AIIMS. In fact more number of trees than axed ones will be planted nearby.

Residential Premises

Six types of flats will be constructed for eighth AIIMS of the country. This will include 10 two type flats, 18 three type, 21 four type, 24 five type and six units of six type flats. Beside this hostel with a capacity of 1400 people will also be constructed in AIIMS.

Himachal-o-Meter

The state’s ups and downs this week

CM Launches Women Safety App

Shimla: Heralding a new chapter towards women safety in the hill state, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh launched  ‘Stree Suraksha Mobile Bilingual App’ from Shimla. The new app launched through online mode from Shimla will be started in three districts Kangra, Chamba and Una in the first phase. The app for the safety of women is the brainchild of Divisional Commissioner, Kangra, Nandita Gupta. Women can download this app for free from google playstore in their andriod phones. After that they will have to select their residential location and mark three preferred contacts to be informed in case of emergency. In case of emergency, the panic button is to be pressed. The police control room in Chamba, Una or Kangra will be informed, along with the GPS location of the user. Locally, the app will produce an alarm sound and the audio-video recording of the situation will begin automatically. Those who do not have smart phones can use 181 Helpline.

No Suggestions From Task Force In Five Years 

Shimla: The Congress government after coming to power promised of better management of boards and corporations running on losses. For this a task force comprising of ministers and officers was constituted. But ironically this task force operations limited to papers only, as it has not presented any suggestions to the government to recover the boards and corporations from losses in the last five years. According to sources, officers in the committee did not showed much interest in this case that resulted in losses of already loss running units escalate. And now the situation has deteriorated to such an extent that these loss running units are not able to pay the salaries of their employees. Notably a total of 11 boards and corporations including HRTC, forest corporation, electricity board, finance corporation etc are running on losses.

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