The Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) will soon get a National Institute of Healthcare Engineering and Architecture facility, which will offer Masters Programme in health facility planning and designing, said Ghulam Nabi Azad on Saturday.
The Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Azad who also is the president of this premier institution was presiding over the Golden Jubilee Celebration and Foundation Day along with Vice-President of India Hamid Ansari, said that this facility will be first of its kind in South East Asia region.
The Minister added that for the past few years, PGI has been ailing with space crunch due to the ever increasing inflow of patients from neighbouring States. To cope up with this problem a 250-bed hospital will be constructed within the existing campus adding more space. This facility will have expanded oncology, ENT and Endocrinology departments.
Azad laid the foundation stone of this 250-bed Expansion of Nehru Hospital on Saturday on the occasion of 51st Foundation Day of the Institute as well as closing ceremony of the Golden Jubilee Celebration.
This new hospital will have 80 private wards and nine modern modular operation theatres. The project, with approximate cost of `100 crore, is expected to be completed in 18 months. The project will come up as extension of Nehru Hospital (the old PGI building). It will not only add a new block of 250 beds but will also include an 80 beds cancer block.
Making health facility more and more accessible is the sole aim of the Government. Keeping this in mind in-principle approval has been given to PGIMER to develop a 300-bed satellite centre at Sangrur (Punjab) which could be expanded to a 500-bed facility depending upon the case load. A 100-bed satellite centre will also be set up at Ferozepur in Punjab to provide quality tertiary care to the people living in remote areas.
Azad said, “The last four years have been a new era of reforms in the history of medical education. To overcome the acute shortage of human resources in health, a series of reforms have been carried out to infuse capital investment in the medical education sector; which includes rationalisation of norms relating to land and infrastructure requirements, bed occupancy, faculty age, qualification and teacher-student ratio, especially in deficient areas, and intake capacity.”