7th AIIMS to come up in Sonia Gandhi's constituency

NEW DELHI: The seventh AIIMS-like institute will come up at Rae Bareilly - Congress president Sonia Gandhi's parliamentary constituency - soon. Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad announced this on Thursday while addressing the convocation ceremony at AIIMS, Delhi.


Azad said that land for the new AIIMS project has been acquired already. "We have acquired land for building AIIMS in Rae Bareilley and tendering process for construction is in process," the health minister said. He added that another medical institution, on the lines of AIIMS, is planned in Rajganj in West Bengal.

Six AIIMS-like institutes, planned initially at Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, Bhubaneshwar in Orissa, Jodhpur in Rajasthan, Patna in Bihar, Raipur in Chhattisgarh and Rishikesh in Uttarakhand, are already complete and the health minister said patient facilities may start soon.

To address the increased requirement of cancer-related treatments in the country, the government plans to start 20 state cancer institutes (SCI) with 50 tertiary care cancer centres (TCCC) in different parts of the country. "The central government last week has approved funds for establishment of these institutes and also the existing 27 regional cancer care centres will be strengthened," Azad said.

A National Cancer Institute with state-of-the-art research and patient care facilities would be established at Jhajjar in Haryana, where the government has acquired 300 acres of land for teaching and research requirements of AIIMS, he said.

Azad said the government has upgraded 19 institutions and it intends to take up another 29 government medical colleges for upgradation in the 12th plan period. The Minister, however, said these ambitious projects and their effective implementation require availability of large number of trained and skilled human resources. "There are at least 81,000 trained doctors working in the US and about 70,000 others who are in the UK. Indians constitute a major workforce in hospitals abroad. We aim to rope in the young professionals for domestic services," the health minister said. The Minister conferred degrees on 509 newly graduated doctors. The programme was also attended by Margaret Chan, Director General of the World Health Organisation.

Chan gave away medals for meritorious academic excellence to 29 students. She said the new doctors symbolise India's aspirations and advised the students to serve the poor and vulnerable sections of society.