AIIMS to Get Infrastructure Push on Anniversary

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here has planned to introduce several facilities to mark its completion of six years in the state on July 15. To begin with, the bed strength at the hospital will be increased to 650 from 450. The medical gas pipeline will start working from this month, while ten modular operation theatres will also be ready by September. The hospital will also offer PET-CT scan facility, which is not available in any government hospital in the state as yet. This advanced nuclear imaging technique combines positron emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT) into one machine. A PET CT scan reveals information about both structure and function of cells and tissues in the body during a single imaging session. “At present, the service is available only at the corporate hospitals in the state. We are the first government-run hospital in the state to offer the facility for patients,” said an AIIMS official. The hospital also plans to throw open its nephrology department soon and start postgraduate courses in all the departments from the forthcoming academic session.

The departments of cardiology, neurology, gastroenterology, hematology and burns and plastic surgery will offer postgraduate courses in the first phase. For the convenience of patients and their attendants, the state-run hospital also plans to install a rest shed that will accommodate 250 persons at one time. “The hospital authorities do not allow more than one person with the patients inside the hospital,” said Lakshmikanta Bhoi, a patient’s attendant from Nayagarh. “As they do not have any rest shed, we are forced to spend nights in the open if we do not have enough money to get a hotel room in the adjacent localities. So, a rest shed will be immensely helpful for us,” he said. At present, 182 faculty members are working in various departments of the hospital, which is the highest among all the six newly-opened AIIMS facilities in the country. “We are steadily growing and these new facilities will immensely benefit the patients. We want to continue rendering quality healthcare service,” said AIIMS director Gitanjali Batmanbane. – Telegraph India