Six AIIMS-like hospitals to be set up in UP

Uttar Pradesh to get six super-speciality hospitals along the lines of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) by modernising existing six government medical college hospitals. Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Health Minister, said, “The high disease burden of UP, which also has the largest population among India’s states, has influenced the decision to add two more colleges to the already cleared list of government medical colleges for upgradation under Phase 3 of the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY).”
 
Kanpur’s Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Memorial (GSVM) Medical College, is the Health Minister’s alma mater. He was a MBBS and MS student here between 1974 and 1983. This medical college’s upgrade is to be put on the fast track as it is servicing a huge population with no comparable facility anywhere in and around Kanpur, stated the Minister.
 
In addition to GSVM, Sarojini Naidu Medical College, Agra, also joins the PMSSY list. The four already under the third phase of the programme are the ones at Gorakhpur, Allahabad, Meerut and Jhansi. Earlier, the Institute of Medical Sciences at Varanasi, the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute at Lucknow and the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College at Aligarh have been upgraded under PMSSY.
 
Under PMSSY-3 the central and state governments contribute on an 80-20 basis for establishing tertiary healthcare facilities by upgrading the existing facilities.
 
“I have decided not only to release funds under PMSSY for Kanpur, but also include it under other schemes like National Cancer Control and the Infectious Diseases Control Laboratory programme of the Department of Health Research,” said Dr Vardhan.