Reported by Santosh Jagdev

Bhubaneswar, Feb 26:

While dedicating the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Bhubaneswar at Sijua here on Wednesday to the public, Ghulam Nabi Azad, the chief guest at the inaugural ceremony, said a Satellite Centre of AIIMS will be set up at Baleswar before the coming general elections.AIIMS PIC

After the State Government allots 25 acres to 30 acres of land for this purpose, the Satellite Centre of the AIIMS with super specialty healthcare facility could be set up, he said, adding, steps like preparation of a detailed project report, funding approvals and other required formalities would be taken up by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

He also said another satellite centre will be established after the general elections for which State Government will have to find out a suitable location in the state.

Thanking the state Government for giving the land free of cost for the AIIMS Bhubaneswar, Azad said it will help greatly to the people from various regions with its 978 bedded capacity.

Speaking about the sanctioned strength in different departments, the Union Health Minister said 4189 posts of super-specialists’ doctors, faculty, nurse and staffs have been cleared by the Government. It will take 5 years to have a full capacity faculty, he said.

Azad also said out of 70 Cancer Institutes to come up in our country, Odisha will get one state level cancer institute at Cuttack and two regional level cancer institute at VSS Medical College located in Burla, Sambalpur and MKCG Medical College and Hospital in Berhampur in Ganjam.

While addressing the inaugural ceremony, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik urged the Central Government to add Baripada to their list of sanctioned medical colleges.

This was later accepted by the Union Health Minister.

Earlier three medical colleges were sanctioned by the Union Health Ministry at Balasore, Bolangir and Koraput. With the Centre willing to add Baripada, Odisha will now get total four medical colleges out of 50 to be set up across the country.

Two medical colleges and hospitals out of a total of 39 in the country will be upgraded to super-specialty hospitals and the services available there would be similar to the kind offered by the AIIMS, New Delhi. They are VSS Medical College, Burla and MKCG Medical College and Hospital, Berhampur.

For this Rs 190 crore rupees will be invested with 25 per cent contribution from the state government and remaining 75 per cent would be borne by the Centre, Health Minister Azad said.

Among others, Union Minister Srikant Jena, Bhubaneswar MP Prasanna Pattsani, local MP, Rajya Sabha MP Rama Chandra Khuntia, and Dr Ashok Kumar Mohapatra, Director AIIMS Bhubaneswar were present on the occasion.