Rahul Gandhi writes to Nadda over patients' plight outside AIIMS, seeks better facilities, infra

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who visited the AIIMS vicinity here last week amid the peaking Delhi election campaign, has now written to Union health minister JP Nadda, lamenting the lack of adequate infrastructure facilities for outpatients and also seeking adequate budgetary allocation for the healthcare sector. He also wrote to Delhi CM Atishi seeking her government's efforts for improving the AIIMS infrastructure.

Saying he was saddened to see outpatients waiting huddled on footpaths in winter outside AIIMS, Gandhi, in his letter, said, "I urge you to take immediate and timely steps to address the situation at AIIMS at Delhi. The government of India should work with the AIIMS leadership and the Government of Delhi and charitable organisations to provide heating, bedding, water and shelter to patients and expand permanent facilities for accommodation..." In order to meet the needs of patients from all across the country, he urged the Union minister that AIIMS facilities across the country should be operationalised at the earliest and healthcare infrastructure should be strengthened.

In a similar letter to the Delhi CM, Gandhi urged the Delhi government to take immediate and timely steps this winter to provide heating, bedding, water and shelter to patients.