All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Bhubaneswar, is all set to launch its much-awaited hospital from August.
The hospital would start off with 75-beds and three OTs, rendering patient care services in basic medical disciplines such as medicine, surgery and gynaecology. The patient care services would commence with 50 general beds, a 12-bedded casualty setup, 10-bedded ICU and three recovery beds.
“The launch of the hospital would be a major achievement as we would avoid sending our students to other hospitals for clinical and practical training. Though the State Government has allowed us to use the facilities at Capital Hospital for training our students, shuttling between the hospital and classes at AIIMS campus on the outskirts of the city would have been a problem”, Director AIIMS-B, Prof Ashok Mohapatra said. The AIIMS hospital in its complete shape would have 1,000 beds in 34 super speciality and speciality disciplines with 28 modular and optimal OT set-up and 110 ICU beds along with other state-of-the-art facilities.
The administration has decided to launch OPD services within the next 10 days to give a kick-start to the hospital. The General OPDs would cover basic medical disciplines of medicine, surgery, gynaecology, dental and ophthalmology and serve about 200 patients a day.
The institution is, however, faced with an acute non-availability of quality manpower. It has, so far, managed to recruit only around 69 doctors for 24 departments, including 15 professors, seven additional professors and 47 associate and assistant professors. “We had advertised for 91 posts in speciality disciplines and received more than 5,000 applications, but could only select 69 with requisite quality and qualifications. This reveals that Government jobs do not attract the best anymore”, Prof Mohapatra rued.
The AIIMS administration has also pressed for speedy construction of the residential blocks for accommodating the additional influx of students with the second batch coming in from August. The first batch of 50 students are presently accommodated in the twin residential blocks on the campus. The blocks have a capacity to house around 120.
“We need another block as along with the 50 students of the second batch, 60 others would be admitted to Nursing School that will also be launched from August”, Prof Mohapatra added.
