Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti today stressed upon the SKIMS faculty to brace up to the challenges of medical research and patient care in order to make the hospital a world class institute.Interacting with the faculty of SKIMS Soura here after inaugurating Digital Cardiac Cath Lab, the Chief Minister said the State takes pride in producing some of the world class medical practitioners. “But the practice needs to be continued in terms of breaking new grounds in medical research and patient care equally”, she said and asked the faculty members to rise to the challenge and make SKIMS a premier medical research centre in the country which she said was the basic aim when the hospital was set up.Mehbooba Mufti, who is also the Chairperson of the Governing Body of SKIMS, asked the SKIMS faculty to enter into tie ups with premier medical research institutes of the country and abroad and venture into frontier areas of research like Genetics, Robotics and other bio physical areas and see how best these can be used for treating the terminal ailments and genetic disorders.
Earlier, the Chief Minister inaugurated the Digital Cardiac Cath Lab at the Department of Cardiology. This advanced facility would be of great relief to patients requiring interventional support in case of cardiac ailments.Mehbooba Mufti hoped that with the operationalization of the new and advanced Cath Lab patients won’t have to travel outside the State for advanced treatments.On the occasion, the Chief Minister enquired about the pace of setting up a Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan at the hospital and asked for pacing up the process.Mehbooba Mufti also enquired about the pace of completion of maternity wing and other ongoing works at the hospital. She impressed upon the SKIMS management to work with added zeal to provide best possible care and attention to patients as it is the only facility of its kind in the State.Director, SKIMS, Prof (Dr) A G Ahangar briefed the Chief Minister about the various initiatives being planned for better patient care at the hospital.Senior members of SKIMS faculty; Principal, SKIMS Medical College, Bemina, Prof Reyaz Untoo; noted gastroenterologist, Prof. M. S. Khuroo, doctors and members of Governing Body were present on the occasion.