Union Health minister Harsh Vardhan’s three-day Odisha visit on Friday

Reported by Chinmaya Dehury 

Bhubaneswar, July 16:

Union Health and Family Welfare minister Harsh Vardhan will be in Odisha on July 18 on a three-day visit to the state for a review of the progress of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Bhubaneswar, which is facing various hurdles including the recruitment of faculty.

Harsh Vardhan
Harsh Vardhan

Vardhan, who would arrive on Friday evening, will visit the AIIMS campus at Sijua on Saturday and review the progress of  work at the medical college and hospital, which celebrated its second foundation day on Wednesday.

Later, he is scheduled to meet chief minister Naveen Patnaik and discuss various issues in the health sector in the state at the Secretariat. The minister will also have a ‘darshan’ of  the Jagannath Trinity in Puri the same day, a PIB press release said today.

The Union minister will address a press conference on July 20, Sunday,  at the State Guest House here.

The AIIMS Bhubaneswar is running behind schedule. It had plans to open some key super speciality units , which form the very core of the AIIMS. However, since not much progress has been achieved so far, the authorities of the institute have pinned their hopes on Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan’s visit, which they believe can help them overcome the ‘hurdles’.

According to sources, the recruitment process has not picked up due to various factors ever since the first advertisement for appointment to various super speciality and speciality posts was published in December last year.

While in many cases, the eligibility of the candidates was not found to be up to the mark, issues like reservation also posed a major hindrance.

The AIIMS Hospital has a sanctioned faculty strength of 350 of which 68 are in position. In its complete shape, it will have 1,000 beds with 15 super speciality and 18 speciality departments.

Currently, it has 200 beds, mostly distributed among basic medical disciplines such as Medicine, Surgery, Orthopaedics and Gynaecology. The new 150 beds will enable in-patient services in other speciality disciplines like ENT, Ophthalmology, Psychiatry, Skin and VD.

 

 

 

 

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