Chandigarh: Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya made his first visit to the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh as the president of the institution, and held a closed door meeting with the officiating director Prof Surjit Singh and other senior faculty on Sunday.
He was accompanied by Union minister of information and broadcasting Anurag Thakur.
According to a recent media report in Times of India, the minister was shown a presentation about the achievements made by the institute. After over two hours, the Mandaviya visited the advanced trauma centre, which witnesses highest inflow of patients from the nearby states and union territories of Himachal , Haryana, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir on a daily basis.
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Further, the minister asked the doctors and patients to send them feedback required for the improvement of the hospital.
An official of PGI told the daily, "He spoke with some of the patients in the advanced trauma centre and asked about the problems. The faculty also apprised him about the patient load which was already known to him." He added, "The minister asked the faculty to generate ideas for affordable healthcare."
The director, deputy director administration, the deans of the institute and UT adviser Dharam Pal received the minister amidst tight security.
A senior doctor said, "We told the minister about the requirement of an additional 500-bed hospital in or around the city to help reduce the load of the PGI which has been a referral institute, but gets non-referral cases often."
The minister was informed about the structure of hospital, advanced centres of patient care, training and research as well as upcoming new centres like the advanced neurosciences centre and advanced mother and child care centre. Along with that, he was shown the progress of three PGI satellite centres at Sangrur, Ferozepur (Punjab) and Una (Himachal Pradesh).
While explaining about the patient load at various areas in the hospital, it was emphasised that many referrals can be dealt with at the level of district hospitals and medical colleges in the region, the statement said.
The minister also listened to the difficulties being faced by the institute assured quick redressal of the administrative bottlenecks, reports TOI.
Earlier in the day, Mandaviya, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur and Anurag Thakur attended the inauguration of an out-patient department (OPD) at AIIMS, Bilaspur by BJP president and Rajya Sabha member J P Nadda.
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