Six more hospitals like AIIMS

INTERIM BUDGET & THE ECONOMY/HEALTH SECTOR

With the ruling NDA government slipping into election mode, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh today announced new initiatives in the health sector, including the setting up of super specialty medical college and hospitals in six states on the lines of All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

The initiative is part of the 'Pradhanmantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana', which the Prime Minister had announced on Independence Day last year.

"Specialty hospitals in the private sector remain beyond the reach of many of our citizens. I would like to mention that under the Pradhanmantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana, one medical college each in the six States of Andhra Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal will also be upgraded to the level of AIIMS," Singh said.

This will be in addition to the six new AIIMS-like hospitals being set up in Bihar, Chhatisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, and Uttaranchal.

This is the first time since 1956 that additional hospitals on the pattern of AIIMS are being set up by the Government. A provision of Rs 60 crore for both the schemes has been made in the interim Budget for 2004-05.

A provision of Rs 3 crore has been kept for Bhuj Hospital in Gujarat. The interim Budget has also provisioned Rs 180 crore for various health related programmes of Northeastern region and Sikkim.

The finance ministry has also increased the Plan allocation for the health and family welfare ministry by over Rs 1,000 crore to Rs 7,481 crore for 2004-05.

The total Plan outlay for the health sector is pegged at Rs 1,779 crore. This is an increase of over Rs 300 crore compared with last year's outlay of Rs 1,411 crore.