Six thousand beds to be added in public healthcare facilities: Government

New Delhi:The government of India in its effort to protect the interests of patients suffering from critical disease or needing hospital care has decided to spruce up its tertiary care facilities all across the country by adding 6000 more beds in the coming two years. It has also planned to set up cancer care hospitals apart from the new ones announced at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) situated in various other states.

The move has been initiated keeping in mind the present patient pressure at the existing centers, explained a senior official talking to TOI. The leading public hospitals where the expansion will be carried out include New Delhi's AIIMS, Ram Manohar Lohia (RML), Safdarjung and Lady Hardinge Hospital. Apart from these, bed capacity at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGI), Chandigarh, and Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) in Puducherry in the coming three years.

Though the private healthcare facilities in the country shoulder 80% of patient treatment burden, the fact remains that the patient queues at public healthcare facilities are never ending; primarily due to the cheap quality care administered in these places.

"Private hospitals have overtaken public facilities. This has resulted in healthcare cost shooting up in a big way. To take care of the imbalance, ramping up public tertiary care facilities is necessary," the official added. Approximately 40,000 patients visit the AIIMS OPD alone according to government data..

Augmentation of various departments such as mother and child care, trauma centre, department of rheumatology, emergency medicine and others is to be part of the improvements to be brought about in public healthcare facilities. The government is going to invest Rs 1,500 crore and 1,300 crores to expand facilities at AIIMS & Safdarjung Hospital respectively.

Additions to hospital bed strength will be carried out both in general and private wards in wards, as well as, the super speciality care, emergency and operation theatres at different hospitals.

The health ministry also plans to give government medical colleges, specialized hospitals and 11 new AIIMS an uplift by improving on the existing bed strength and making it 9,000.