AIIMS Delhi capacity to be doubled in 2 yrs: Nadda

The bed strength of AIIMS, Delhi would be doubled in two years and the new AIIMS in states strengthened to help provide tertiary health care facilities to people, government said today.
Health Minister J P Nadda said the government was moving fast towards a policy of "health insurance and health assurance" to provide free drugs and diagnostic facilities to all. A beginning has been made in the budget whereby Rs one lakh health insurance cover is being provided to families and an additional Rs 30,000 cover for every elderly in the family.
"Within a span of two years the capacity of AIIMS in Delhi will be doubled. We are aiming to double the capacity of number of beds in the institution," he said during Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha.

Talking about free health cover for all and whether India will follow the English model of National Health Scheme, he said "We have moved towards a new model. We are moving forward to health insurance and health assurance. We are also moving towards free drugs and diagnostic facilities and slowly towards health assurance."
Replying to supplementaries, he said, the new AIIMS in various states are also being strengthened and, to help maintain the standards of AIIMS, the faculty of Delhi AIIMS is being sent to various other AIIMS to help impart training.
Nadda said government was moving fast in expanding the capacity and adding the tertiary care healthcare facilities across the country. Institutions cannot be built in days, but they take time as standards have to be maintained, he said.

He also said the government has opened an AMRIT outlet which provides medicines at very affordable prices and announced plans to start another 300 such outlets.

Nadda said the government aims to maintain balance between load and quantity with regard to government hospitals.
Citing the instance of AIIMS here, he said every day the OPD gets 10,000 patients and a footfall of 50,000-70,000. Similar is the situation in hospitals like RML and Safdarjung.
Nadda said the Health ministry had also set up a committee to suggest a suitable PPP mode for hospitals which can be set up with the help of the private sector and regulated by the government.

He said 3 to 4 models have been suggested and the ministry is examining them.