National Centre for Ageing to come up at AIIMS, MMC Chennai

To cater to the needs of the elderly population in the country, the Union Health Ministry is planning to set up two highly specialised 'National Centre for Ageing' at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here and at Madras Medical College in Chennai.
As part of the government's focus on providing quality medical care to the ageing, 12 regional geriatric centres would also be established in medical colleges across the country in addition to the existing eight, a senior Health Ministry official said.
"These National Centre for Ageing will be specialised centres of excellence for geriatric care. They will develop manuals for home care and provide training to the specialists and formulate protocols in areas of elderly care.

"A need was felt for setting up these centres as there is no specialisation in geriatric medicines (in the country). These institutes will also involve in developing enhanced evidence of elderly through research in geriatrics and gerontology," the official said.
The two centres would have 200 beds and also have 15 seats for post-graduate course in geriatric medicine.
"The objective is to upscale the health-care activities at tertiary level so that specialised health-care can be given to the elderly as they suffer from higher prevalence of disease burden including multiple chronic disease with disability and other mental health problems," the official said.

The project is estimated to cost around Rs 477.49 crore, and the Health Ministry has written to the Finance Minister seeking financial support, he added.