In what many will see as a poll gift for Himachal Pradesh, the Centre on Saturday finally invited bids for building a 300-bed PGI Satellite Hospital in the key Una district, saying the hospital will be ready in two years.
There has been a demand in Himachal Pradesh for a big hospital, with locals having to visit the PGIMER in Chandigarh for specialised treatment. The BJP had promised the hospital before the 2019 elections and BJP president JP Nadda, then the Union Health Minister, had also laid its foundation stone. The work will now finally begin with the tenders being invited. Una comes under the Hamirpur Lok Sabha constituency represented by Union information and broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur.
The institute will be built on 38 acres in Una at the cost of Rs 265 crore with 300 beds having the state-of-the-art multi-specialty facilities. There is a future provision in the master plan for Medical College at the undergraduate level with an annual intake of 100 students. The Union health ministry has engaged PGIMER & HLL Infra Tech Services Ltd. (HITES) as the executing agency and the latter has invited bids on Saturday. The project may get awarded before the Himachal elections in December.
Boon for Himachal?
Three satellite centres of PGIMER, Chandigarh were announced by the Centre few years ago in Ferozepur and Sangrur in Punjab and Una in Himachal Pradesh to reduce the pressure of patients who visit the Chandigarh hospital from the other two states. The new PGI hospital in Una will be about 125 km away from Chandigarh. The PGIMER in Chandigarh was inaugurated by then Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru in 1963 and functions now as an autonomous body under the Union health ministry.
According to the bid document, the satellite centre of PGI in Una will provide “quality health care to the residents of interior areas of HP” with mandate of medical research, tertiary healthcare and medical education.
“This Institute will participate in providing national leadership in education of the Practicing Physicians & Surgeons and Medical Scientists, Medical research and in the application of sophisticated Medical Technology to patient care. The activities of the Institute will focus on providing the highest quality patient care services, medical education in future,” the bid document says.
The campus has been designed to be a self-sustaining integrated campus with dedicated zones for healthcare, institutional and residential components ensuring seamless movement of residents, patients and visitors.
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