As part of its plans to expand the public medical infrastructure in the country, the Union government will establish an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Karnataka in the next financial year, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Harsh Vardhan has said.
“Even after 50 years of Independence, the country had only one AIIMS at New Delhi. After the Narendra Modi government came to power, six more institutes have been established in the country including one in Rae Bareli. We have now planned to establish one more in Karnataka and the project would get approval in the next financial year. We would establish 22 such institutes across the country in the years to come,” he said.
He was speaking from New Delhi in a virtual meeting after remotely inaugurating the Super Speciality Trauma Care Centre at Vijayanagar Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS) in Ballari on Monday. Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa and Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar also participated in the event from Bengaluru.
As per the information provided by the Ballari district administration, the trauma care has been established at a cost of ₹150 crore under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY). The new facility with 200-bed capacity including 72 beds in ICU and 79 beds in the emergency department is equipped with neurosurgery, plastic surgery, orthopaedics, radiology and anaesthesia departments.
“Late Sushma Swaraj had contested a Lok Sabha election from Ballari and she had given approval for a trauma centre in Ballari when she became Union Health Minister. Now, it is realised. Besides, four medical colleges – one each in Chikkamagaluru, Haveri, Yadgir and Chikkaballapur – would be established this year. We have established 57 medical colleges across the country in the last four years,” Dr. Harsh Vardhan said.
Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Ashwini Kumar Choubey, parliamentarian Nasir Hussein, legislators Somashekhar Reddy and Allam Veerabhadrappa, Ballari Urban Development Authority chairman Dammur Shekhar, Joint Secretary of Union Health and Family Welfare Sunil Sharma, Additional Chief Secretary of Health and Family Welfare Jawaid Akhtar, Ballari Deputy Commissioner S.S. Nakul, Superintendent of Police C.K. Baba, Chief Executive Officer of Zilla Panchayat K.R. Nandini, Medical Education Director P.G. Girish, VIMS Director Devanand and others participated in the virtual meeting. B. Nagendra, MLA, Ballari Rural, presided.