Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare and Smt. Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Union Food Processing Industries Minister today inaugurated the OPD Services of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Bathinda.The AIIMS Bathinda, Punjab was approved under Phase V of the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) of Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India in July, 2016. The cost of the project is Rs. 925 Crores 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 premier medical institute on 177-acre land having 10 specialty and 11 super specialty departments. It will also have 16 ultra- modern operation theaters. 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 work from 9 AM onwards and registration will be from 8 AM till 11 AM. Facilities of pathology microbiology and chemotherapy will be added very soon. There is also a provision of providing medicines through AMRIT Drug store , a Govt. 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 NOV 2020. PGIMER, Chandigarh has been entrusted the responsibility of mentoring AIIMS Bathinda.
On this occassion Dr. Harsh Vardhan said that the Institute will be beneficial not only for the state of Punjab but also its neighboring states. He said that the Orthopedic,General Surgery including surgical oncology and urologist Pediatric surgery consultation, General Medicine, ENT, Ophthalmology, Psychiatry, Dermatology, Obstetrics and Gynecology , Dental, Radiology (X-ray Ultrasound and Colour Doppler, Basic Biochemistry and Basic Hematology tests services have been started in AIIMS Bathinda from today. He said that currently there will be no emergency services or indoor facility but the same will be started in November 2020. The Institute has a special family medicine clinic also. Ayush centre will also be there in the AIIMS campus Bathinda.Dr. Harsh Vardhan said that a satellite centre of PGIMER, Chandigarh will be opened in Ferozpur district of Punjab. He said that Union Government is working on 22 AIIMS in the country to give better medical health services to the people. He said that 157 new medical colleges are being established in the country out of these 75 medical colleges are in the Aspirational districts of the country. As many as 1.5 Lakh Health and Wellness Centres are being opened in the country and 20,000 hospitals registered where under the Ayushmaan Bharat Yojna about 70 lakh patients have availed the medical facilities.Smt. Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Union Food Processing Industries Minister told that this AIIMS has fulfilled the demand for advanced super specialty health care to the people of the Malwa region for the first time since independence.She said that OPD services at the 750 bedded Institute at 12.30 tomorrow and that nine clinical and three basic facilities would be available at subsidized rates to the general public.
Mrs Badal said that initially the OPD services would be equipped to handle around one thousand patients every day and that this would be increased in due course to handle five thousand patients daily. The union minister 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 bedded hospital. She said four super specialty departments Urology, Pediatric Surgery, Surgical Oncology and Neurology would start shortly with doctors having joined the Institute. She said a 45 bedded trauma centre would also start functioning next year besides the Medical and Nursing Colleges. She said that the Medical College, which had already started functioning from Baba Farid University, Faridkot would shift to Bathinda next year. She appealed one and all to rise above party lines to ensure all round development of the country in every respect by following "Sab Ka Sath, Sab Ka Vikas and Sab Ka Vishwas" mantra.Thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for granting the AIIMS to Bathinda to ensure super specialty services at subsidized rates to people of the Malwa region, Smt. Badal said it was a matter of satisfaction that the Bathinda AIIMS facility was among the first to become operational amongst all the 13 AIIMS institutes sanctioned in the country. Both the Union Ministers visited the newly opened OPD block of the AIIMS.Shri Om Prakash Soni, Minister of Medical Education and Research, Punjab thanked the Union Government for the AIIMS and assured all cooperation and support from Punjab Government to achieve the target of health for all. Shri Sukhbir Singh Badal MP, Shri Balwinder Singh Bhundar, MP, Shri Sunil Sharma, Joint Secretary Union Health and Faimly Welfare Ministry, Prof. Jagat Ram, Director, PGIMER, Chandigarh also spoke on the occasion. EOM