Health ministry to establish four more AIIMS-Like Institutions during the next five years

The Union health ministry is aiming at setting up of four more new AIIMS Like Institutions (ALIs) under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY), aside from completing the ongoing works on the six such institutions.
The Ministry is also considering creation of an apex team to monitor the progress of the works and establishment of new institutions during the next five year plan period, sources said. The proposed apex team will facilitate new projects under PMSSY. The team would develop sound governance and management system in view of the time over-runs and cost over-runs in the implementation of PMSSY.
The regions for the new ALIs will be decided based on geographic location, physical infrastructure, connectivity as well as the health indicators and local disease burden.
Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved the PMSSY scheme in March 2006 for Rs.332 crore per institution. The cost, however, escalated to Rs.820 crore per institution in March 2010. Works are in progress for these new six ALIs at Patna (Bihar), Raipur (Chattisgarh), Bhopal (MP), Jodhpur (Rajasthan), Bhubaneswar (Orissa) and Rishikesh (Uttrakhand).
“The construction work at these six sites commenced during 2007-2008 and work of housing complexes, at Jodhpur and Raipur has already been completed. However, the construction work of Medical College and Hospital Complex has only been completed to the extent of 23-36 per cent and 10-21 per cent, respectively at various sites. It is expected that all civil works (housing; medical college; and hospital) will be completed by September 2012. The construction at other four sites would also be completed by May 2012,” sources said.
PMSSY was first launched with the primary objective of correcting the imbalances in availability of affordable/reliable tertiary level healthcare in the country in general and to augment facilities for quality medical education in the under-served States.
The pattern of governance and management of ALIs was approved by the Union Cabinet in August 2010. It was decided that each of these institutions would be registered under a society. These societies will be functional till the ALIs are brought under an Act of Parliament. It is noteworthy that a High Powered Committee was set up recently to review the Governance and HR practices at the AIIMS. The experience of the review indicates that the existing Institutions would also need similar review to optimize their functioning,
Source:Pharmabiz