PM to inaugurate AIIMS Rajkot tomorrow, all 750 beds to be in place by December

In its budget for 2017-18, the Union government had announced setting up an AIIMs in Gujarat, which was approved by the Union Cabinet on January 10, 2019. Following this, the state government allotted 201 acre of land in Para Pipaliya village.

In the meantime, AIIMS Rajkot started functioning out of a temporary campus in Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay (PDU) Government Hospital and PDU Government Medical College in Rajkot. It welcomed its first batch of 50 MBBS students on December 21, 2020. Ten days later, Modi laid the foundation stone of the permanent campus at Para Pipaliya, to be developed at a cost of Rs 1,195 crore.

Sources said while the original deadline for opening the IPD was September 2022, there has been delay in completing civil works.

Dr Katoch said that while construction of the permanent campus was delayed due reasons like to labour shortages arising out of Covid-19 pandemic, shifting of power utilities and hard rocky strata in Para Pipaliya, AIIMS started its OPD at its underconstruction campus in Para Pipaliya on December 31, 2021.

“Within days after the honourable Prime Minister formally inaugurates the campus, we will start offering IPD services, most likely from March 1… If we maintain the current speed (of construction), we shall make all the 750 hospitals available by the end of December,” he added.

Dr Katoch said that at present, 14 departments of AIIMS are providing OPD services. “We have 200 undergraduate students, 16 postgraduate students and 69 faculties… we also treat patients in the IPD and have a nursing staff of around 400 members. After the inauguration, we shall start offering multispecialty treatment in our IPD… Once we have all the 750 beds in place, we shall start offering super-specialty treatment.”

Colonel Punit Arora, deputy director (administration) of AIIMS Rajkot, said that of the five towers of the main building, towers A and B have been completed. While 50 per cent of the work at Tower E has been completed, towers C and D are under construction.

He added that a night shelter is also ready, which will provide lodging and boarding facility to one relative of every IPD patient. “We have three helipads for handling air ambulances. We also have a shopping complex and a PM Jan Aushadhi Kendra, which will provide generic medicines at affordable rates… Charges of AIIMS Rajkot will be at par with AIIMS Delhi,” he said.

Dr Katoch said that two pharmacy stores, including one central store, have been opened. “While we will get a license for a blood bank within a few months, our facility has been recognised for storing blood and blood products. Our laboratory will provide round-the-clock diagnostic services,” he added.

“We have started using drones to provide diagnostic services in rural areas by fetching samples from primary health centres and community health centres to our laboratory, testing them and communicating results to respective centres. We will also use drones to deliver medicines in the event of medical emergencies,” said Dr Katoch.

Col Arora said that 177 flats have been constructed for the staff and 1,230 beds will be available the in student hostels by the beginning of the next academic session. “We shall also start a nursing college with 60 seats from the next academic session,” he added.