Prime Minister Narendra Modi talks to Ranjan Bhattacharya, the foster son-in-law of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, during his visit to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (Source: PTI Photo/PMOIndia Twitter)
While claiming that his government had proposed and approved of more All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in the past four years than in the past 70, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterated his government’s commitment to providing affordable healthcare to the poor in every corner of the country.
Modi was speaking at AIIMS in Delhi after the inauguration of a kilometre-long motorable tunnel which connected the main campus to the trauma facility and facilitates transfer of patients, relatives, doctors and medicines. He also laid the foundation stone of the National Centre for Ageing at AIIMS, which will be built in a year and a half at an estimated cost of Rs 300 crore and will provide the elderly with multi-specialty healthcare. He also inaugurated a 300-bed Powergrid Vishram Sadan at AIIMS and at Safdarjung Hospital, Modi inaugurated a 555-bed super-speciality block and a 500-bed emergency block.
The Prime Minister also visited former prime minister Atal Vajpayee for around 10-15 minutes. This was the third time Modi visited the BJP veteran, who was admitted to the hospital on June 11 with a kidney tract infection and chest congestion.
Earlier, stressing on the need for affordable healthcare, the Prime Minister said, “In the past four years, we have given a new direction to public healthcare. We are moving towards a situation, where the poor and the middle class get better healthcare without spending more.” He enlisted the government’s achievements, ranging from new vaccines that had reduced infant mortality to working with state governments to bolster medical facilities to providing essential medicines for free.
Modi said that there were two aspects to the union government’s drive: firstly that the existing hospitals in the country get better amenities and facilities and “health facilities being created in different corners of the country.” He said, “Since independence, the numbers of AIIMS that have been proposed and created is less than what we have done in the past four years.”
The Prime Minister also stressed the need for creating more doctors and medical professionals through improving medical education. He said, “Hospitals are being upgraded to medical colleges – 23 new medical colleges will be created and the government eventually hopes to have 1 medical college for every three Lok Sabha seat.”
While stressing on the economic burden that illness can have on the poor, the Prime Minister said that the government aims to “take health care outside the health ministry” – by involving different ministries such as the water and sanitation, women and child, AYUSH. He added that the National Health Protection Scheme was a major step and that the government was aiming to create 1 health and wellness centre for every panchayat in the country. “This will be a big gain for villages and kasbahs,” he said.
The government’s target of providing free treatment for serious illness of up to Rs 5 lakh, Modi promised, would become the “biggest health assurance scheme in the world.” He said, “This isn’t just for the poor. But will create opportunity in the medical sector…create employment, infrastructure.”
“Our aim is to ensure that every citizen gets affordable and modern healthcare. But this isn’t possible without the help of the medical fraternity,” he said.