Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Wednesday said that his government was determined to provide high-quality medical facilities to the people of the state. For this, the health infrastructure is being strengthened.

He said this while inaugurating the Atal Super Specialty Medical Institute at Chamiyana near Shimla constructed at a cost of Rs 262 crore under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana-III on Wednesday.

He also laid the foundation stone of the Critical Care Block to be constructed at a cost of Rs 25 crore and of Advanced Diagnostic Centre to be constructed at a cost of Rs 42 crore to further strengthen the health facilities in the state.

“This hospital would provide world-class specialized health care facilities to the people of the state,” he said, adding that the credit of this institution also goes to the then Union Health Minister and present national BJP president Jagat Prakash Nadda.

He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was going to dedicate AIIMS at Bilaspur on October 5.

“Satellite Centre of PGIMER was also being set up at Una at a cost of Rs 450 crore. In addition, the Central government has also provided Medical Colleges at Mandi, Chamba, Hamirpur and Nahan in Sirmour,” he said, adding that presently the state has six medical colleges in the Government sector alone and one Medical College in the private sector.

The Chief Minister said that the focus of the state government was to strengthen the existing health infrastructure of the state. “This Institute would have ten super specialized departments with 50 ICUs and 283 normal beds with centralized supply of oxygen. It will also have nine operation theatres, two cath labs and city scan facilities,” he informed.

This Institute would have Open Heart Surgery, Angioplasty, TAVI, BMU, IVUS and 4D-ultrasound facilities, he said, adding that in addition to this the hospital would have facilities for neurosurgery, kidney transplantation and urology procedures including laparoscopic surgery and lithotripsy, beside Nephrology services including dialysis.

Thakur said that this Super Specialty Hospital would also have facilities of GI Endoscopy, Colonoscopy, Neurology services, EEG, EMG and facilities of stroke therapy.

The Chief Minister said that the Advanced Diagnostic Centre, the foundation stone of which was laid by him today, would further strengthen the health facilities and under this, advanced diagnostic facilities would be provided for all highly specialized departments.

Furthermore, under the Prime Minister’s Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission, 14 Critical Care Blocks would be constructed at a total cost of Rs 350 crore in order to strengthen the health infrastructure to deal with the emergency situation like Covid-19 epidemic in the state in future, he added.

He said that Rs 25 crore would be spent on each critical care block and the hospital would also have a facility of plastic surgery and a total of about 300 posts have been created for this Medical Institute.