Cabinet nod for upgrading 13 medical institutions

New Delhi, June 22: The country will soon have 19 premier medical institutions which will have research and treatment facilities on par with All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

While 13 of the existing medical institutions will be upgraded to the level of AIIMS at a total cost of Rs 1,560 crore, six will be set up afresh.

These proposals were approved at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today.

Making the announcement, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said, the proposals would also fill the "gap in tertiary healthcare infrastructure as well quality medical institution in the under-served states." Following is the list of 11 institutions to be upgraded: Govt.

Medical College, Jammu, Jammu&Kashmir; Kolkata Medical College, Kolkata, West Bengal; Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh; Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh; Govt. Medical College, Salem, Tamil Nadu; Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh; Patliputra Medical College Hospital, Dhanbad; B J Medical College, Ahmedabad, Gujarat; Bangalore Medical College, Bangalore, Karnataka; J J Medical College Hospital, Mumbai, Maharashtra; Medical College, Thrivananthapuram, Kerala; Upgradation of one more institution in Jammu and Kashmir, namely, Government Medical College, Srinagar and of one more public institution in Uttar Pradesh is on the cards.

The upgradation (13 institutions) proposal has been done under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthiya Yojna with a base cost of around Rs 1,560 crore, Mr Chidambaram told newspersons here.

Mr Chidambaram said the decision to upgrade 11 medical institutions was deferred on "the last occasion" to identify them.

He said six institutions of the level of super-speciality hospital and research institution like AIIMS will be set up.

UNI