The prestigious Post Graduate Institute for Medical Education and Research (PGIMER, PGI for short) Chandigarh got its last advanced super speciality centre – Advanced Cardiac Centre – in 2009. Since then, it has been starved of a major project. The wait is finally over – not one, but two advanced super speciality centres have been sanctioned for the institute along with a satellite centre at Una in Himachal Pradesh with a total outlay of Rs 1475 crore.
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All three projects – Advanced Mother and Child Centre (Rs 485 crores), Advanced Neurosciences Centre (Rs 495.31 crores) and Satellite Centre at Una in HP (Rs 495 crores) on the pattern of the Satellite Centre at Sangrur in Punjab were approved at a meeting of the Delegated Investment Board (DIB) of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Govt of India, held in New Delhi. Among others the meeting was attended by the representatives of NITI Aayog and Ministry of Finance.
Photo By: Life in Chandigarh
PGI Director Dr. Jagat Ram led the institute’s team at the meeting. PGI Deputy Director (Admn) Amitabh Avasthi among others also participated.
Besides the Advanced Cardiac Centre, PGI also has an Advanced Pediatrics Centre (opened in 1997) and Advanced Eye Centre (inaugurated in 2006).
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Work on all three projects is expected to start soon. A media statement issued by PGI on Sunday, quoted Union Health and Family Welfare Minister JP Nadda as welcoming the development and reiterating the government’s resolve to provide health facilities and coverage to all at affordable price at their doorstep. He was also quoted as urging the Government of Himachal Pradesh to provide land at the earliest so that work on the Satellite Centre at Una could start immediately.
Advanced Mother and Child Centre
The PGI statement informed that the Advanced Mother and Child Centre will be a 300-bedded facility aimed at achieving a quantum jump in obstetric and neonatal tertiary care. It will establish new facilities like intensive care unit (ICU), neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) with level 4 services, high dependency unit (HDU), fetal medicine unit, robotic surgery, human milk bank, advanced infertility services and reproductive endocrinology.
This state of the art Advanced Centre, claimed to be first of its kind in Northern Region, would also enhance the training of health professionals by acting as an advanced simulation and skill training centre. It would also create world class advanced research facilities. Importantly, the Centre would make a substantial contribution towards reduction of maternal, prenatal and neonatal mortality in the region.
Advanced Neurosciences Centre
The Advanced Neurosciences Centre, a 300-bedded facility, would help in creating state of the art facilities to offer timely as well as best treatment for neurological and neurosciences disorders. It will provide increased bed strength, more number of OTs, ICUs and ventilators and affordable health care. This Centre would provide additional facilities like brain suite, mapping, invasive neurophysiological techniques and advanced imaging technology. The Centre would act as a training centre for neuro specialists from across the country.
Satellite Centre at Una
The Satellite Centre at Una in HP, on the lines of the existing Satellite Centre at Sangrur in Punjab, would be a 300-bedded state of the art hospital aimed at reducing the referrals to PGI and providing quality healthcare facilities to the people of Himachal Pradesh. The Centre would provide specialised services in the departments of medicine, gynaecology, general surgery, paediatrics, ophthalmology, ENT, dental, radiology, dermatology, and many more. The Centre is expected to improve survival, reduce disability, ensure better rehabilitation and quality of life and affordable quality healthcare to the people of that region.
