GUWAHATI:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will dedicate AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) Guwahati and three other medical colleges to the nation during his visit to Assam on Friday (April 14).
The foundation stone of AIIMS Guwahati was also laid by the Prime Minister in May 2017.
“AIIMS Guwahati will be a boon for the Northeast,” said Dr Ashok Puranik, executive director of AIIMS Guwahati while addressing a press conference here on April 12.
“This will be the first AIIMS of Northeast,” Dr Puranik said.
Dr Puranik said that AIIMS Guwahati started patient care services via telemedicine in 2022 and limited OPD for residents started.
“Most of the clinical departments are functional. MBBS course started in AIIMS Guwahati in the 2020-21 academic session. The first batch of MBBS students at AIIMS Guwahati started their classes from a temporary campus at Narakasur hilltop, in the Institute of Paramedical Sciences adjoining Guwahati Medical College. On March 5, 2022, the academic and administrative activities shifted to the permanent campus at Changsari,” Dr Puranik said.
“Currently there are 199 MBBS students, 78 faculty members, 125 nursing officers and 12 senior residents at AIIMS Guwahati. To facilitate clinical exposure and clinical postings as per curriculum for 4th and 5th-semester students, MOU has been signed with Maligaon Railway Hospital,” Dr Puranik also said.
“We are taking baby steps at present with 150 beds to become functional from April 14, but within the next three or four years, the hospital will be fully functional with a capacity of 750 beds,” he said.
The hospital will provide “high-quality patient care services” in various specialities and super specialities including cardiology, neurology, burns and plastic surgery, cardiothoracic and vascular surgery and interventional radiology, he also said.
AIIMS, Guwahati was established with the three-pronged objective of state-of-the-art patient care, high-quality medical education and cutting-edge research, which will not only benefit Assam but also its neighbouring states of Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Manipur, he further said.
“The institute aims to correct regional imbalances in the availability of affordable and reliable tertiary healthcare services, to augment facilities for quality medical education and providing comprehensive, quality and holistic tertiary care health services to the people of Assam and neighbouring states,” Dr Puranik said.
He added that the AIIMS will also provide cancer care, advanced laparoscopy facilities, trauma care and “futuristic interventions like robotic surgery, organ transplantation, regenerative medicine, genetics and simulation lab”
Among others, Dr Bhupen Barman, DMS, HoD General Medicine, AIIMS, Guwahati and Dr Kaustav Kumar Bairagi, DMS, HoD Forensic Medicine & Toxicology, AIIMS Guwahati were also present during the press conference.