In order to bring relief to patients and their relatives from the increasing winter chill in the national Capital, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has collaborated with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) to set up a temporary 40-bed night shelters outside its dental centre. This move is in order to ensure that those patients who fail to get a bed can camp outside with their relatives without having to bear the biting cold.
Spokesperson of AIIMS Dr Amit Gupta said, “AIIMS is visited by large number of patients and many camp outside the institution failing to secure a bed. We have set up this temporary night shelter. We are planning to come up with some more such temporary night shelters.” While this is only a temporary arrangement, Gupta added that AIIMS is also coming up with a new 200-bed permanent night shelter that would be ready by 2015.
The hospital has received Rs29 crore from the Power Grid Corporation for building the permanent facility. Gupta said that a large number of patients coming to AIIMS for treatment are from neighbouring States like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, who in the absence of getting a bed either make their own arrangements or else camp outside the hospital.
The hospital already has a 160-bed night shelter located on the campus of the Trauma Centre, being run jointly with the CRPF. There is another 500-bed night shelter at the hospital’s east campus near Safdarjung Hospital.