PM to commission India's third medical institute

Shillong, June 27 (UNI) Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Anbumani Ramadoss today announced that India's third postgraduate medical institute, North East Indira Gandhi Regional Institute for Medical Sciences (NEIGRIMS), will be inaugurated this September.

Talking to reporters here, Dr Ramadoss said the project worth Rs 422.60 crore, spread over 273 acres of land at Mawdiangdiang, 15 km from here, would be inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

This would be the first ever 500-bedded referral hospital with 35 speciality and super-speciality departments in the NE region.

''The hospital will be equipped with modern technologies to provide best health care to the people of the region,'' Dr Ramadoss said.

However, he acknowledged that there had been some delay in the procurement process due to certain multifarious factors like rapid change of technology.

The Union Minister also announced that the medical institute would set up a 100-bedded regional cancer institute and the North East AYUSH, an institute for the traditional medical system for research, patients care and training.

Dr Ramadoss, leading a 15-member Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare, further informed that the government had decided to upgrade the 50 seated to a 100 seat nursing institute and setting up of a Dental and Cancer institute within the NEIGRIMS was on cards.

He also informed that the autonomous medical institute would start its MBBS course from next year onwards to cater student's community from the region.

Dr Ramadoss apprised that the interim facilities in the institute were already functional in a few disciplines like cardiology, oncology and medicine.

Special packages and incentives have been announced by the ministry to attract specialist and super-specialist doctors, he added.

Former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had declared NEIGRIHMS as a national institute on January 22, 2000, when he had visited Shillong.

UNI