For long, people living in the southern parts of Tamilnadu have been deprived of a state-of-the-art healthcare facility and many of them have to come all the way to Chennai to get medical treatment. Their pains are set to become a thing of the past with the Centre approving establishment of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Madurai. The hospital would come up at a cost of Rs 1,264 crore and will be set up under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY).
Setting up of new AIIMS would not only transform health education and training but also address the shortfall of healthcare professionals in the region. The new AIIMS will provide super speciality healthcare to the population while creating a large pool of doctors and other health workers in this region that can be available for primary and secondary level institutions and facilities being created under National Health Mission (NHM). The AIIMS will add 100 UG (MBBS) seats and 60 B.Sc (Nursing) seats and will have 15-20 super speciality departments. The facility will add around 750 hospital beds.
As per data of current functional AIIMS, it is expected that the new AIIMS would cater to around 1,500 out-patients per day. Establishment of new AIIMS involves creation of hospital, teaching block for medical and nursing courses, residential complex and allied facilities / services, broadly on the pattern of AIIMS, New Delhi, and other six new AIIMS taken up under Phase-I of PMSSY. And the 750 beds will include emergency / trauma beds, AYUSH beds, private beds and ICU speciality and super speciality beds. In addition, there will be a medical college, AYUSH block, auditorium, night shelter, guest house, hostels and residential facilities. Considering all these features, we can hope that Madurai would become the healthcare capital of southern Tamilnadu.
