GUWAHATI, Feb 25 - With the fate of the site of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Assam in the hands of the Green Tribunal, the State Government will have to look for an alternative location if the Tribunal rejects the present site.
Meanwhile, the Union Government is planning to give stress on telemedicine to ease the problem of shortage of doctors.
Highly placed sources in the Union Health Ministry told The Assam Tribune that it remains to be seen whether the Green Tribunal gives the green signal for the construction of the AIIMS at Changsari. If the Green Tribunal rejects the site, then the government will have to look for an alternative site, sources said.
After the finalisation of the site, at least two to three years will be required to complete the buildings, but building up the institution would take some more time. The total project cost is around Rs 1,000 crore and the institution would have 100 MBBS seats initially.
Sources admitted that the AIIMS in New Delhi is overburdened, as patients from all over the country flock to that hospital. As the hospital is finding it difficult to deal with the ever increasing flow of patients, the government has decided to set up new AIIMSs in different parts of the country. Six such institutions have already started functioning partially, while 12 more, including one in Assam, are in the pipeline.
Source asserted that there should be no shortage of funds for setting up of the AIIMS and the construction would start immediately after the plot is finalised.
The Government of India is also assisting the States to set up super specialty wings in the existing medical colleges and upgradation of civil hospitals to medical colleges. Moreover, efforts are also on to increase the number of postgraduate seats in the medical colleges and the Medical Council of India has also relaxed the professor-student ratio norms so that more PG students could be admitted into the medical colleges.
Sources admitted that shortage of doctors is a problem faced not only by Assam but also by the entire country. But with the information technology boom, the Government of India is planning to give stress on telemedicine, so that people can get treatment from senior doctors of government hospitals without visiting such places. If the plan succeeds, the patients in the remote areas would be able to upload their test reports to get medical advice from experts without visiting the cities and towns, sources added.
