Bathinda (Punjab), Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Harsh Vardhan and Union Food Processing Industries Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Monday jointly inaugurated the OPD Services of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Bathinda.
Vardhan said the institute would be beneficial not only for the state but also its neighbouring states.
He said currently there would be no emergency services or indoor facility but they would be started in November 2020.
The institute has a special family medicine clinic also.
Vardhan said a satellite centre of the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) in Chandigarh would be opened in Ferozepur district.
He said the Union government is working on 22 AIIMS in the country to give better medical health services to the people. He said 157 new medical colleges are being established in the country.
Harsimrat Kaur Badal said this AIIMS has fulfilled the demand for advanced super-specialty healthcare to the people of the Malwa region for the first time since Independence. She said the entire institute would start running on full steam by August next year and that this would include start of in-patient departments in the 750-bed hospital.
The AIIMS Bathinda was approved under Phase V of the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in July 2016.
The cost of the project is Rs 925 crore which will be completed by June 2020.
The foundation stone for AIIMS at Bathinda was laid in November 2016.
AIIMS Bathinda has been planned as a 750-bedded medical institute on 177 acres having 10 specialty and 11 super specialty departments. It will also have 16 ultra-modern operation theatres.
It has 100 seats in medical college and 60 seats in nursing college.
The first batch of MBBS of AIIMS Bathinda has been started this year on Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS), Faridkot campus, on a temporary basis as AIIMS Bathinda campus is under construction.
All OPDs will now work with facilities of pathology microbiology and chemotherapy will be added soon, a government statement said.
There is also a provision of providing medicines through Amrit drug store, a government of India initiative, on discounted rates.
As of now Ayushman Bharat scheme will not be implemented as only OPD services are being provided. The scheme will be implemented once the indoor services are started in November 2020.
The PGIMER in Chandigarh has been entrusted the responsibility of mentoring AIIMS Bathinda.
