The ministry wants to fast track setting up of new AIIMS, which are getting delayed due to various reasons
There has been a delay in setting up of new All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) pan-India due to non-availability of project and design consultants and financial crunch being faced by construction agencies. This has compelled MoHFW to take the help of information technology (IT) to closely monitor and evaluate the progress of the projects and their timely completion.
“We have installed Microsoft dashboard a month ago that helps us monitor the new AIIMS projects, the status of the upgradation of 39 medical colleges and 73 government hospitals pan-India. The dashboard gives information on the estimated cost, cumulative progress of a particular project with a pictorial representation, as a graph, bar and pie chart. Also, Primavera, a real-time software application was installed which helps us to monitor the physical improvements. The progress can be tracked right from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), MoHFW, PSUs involved and the project managers,” a senior health ministry official said.
The official further added that the success of any project depends upon monitoring, evaluation and continuous feedback. The PMO, MoHFW, project managers, PSUs like Hospital Services Consultancy Corporation (HSCC) and HLL Lifecare Limited are connected so that they get to know about the projects, while Primavera’s software is designed to handle large-scale, highly sophisticated and multi-faceted projects like various government hospitals and new AIIMS projects.
Informing that every upgradation project and every AIIMS project has an IT element to it, the official said, “The projects were approved in 2010 and they had to be completed by 2012, but presently things are being put back to track. With the enhancement of IT, the ministry has made changes like simplified equipment procurement. Moreover, PSUs like HLL and HSCC are empowered to handle financial rules, contractual matters, evaluating technical, financial bids, floating tenders for the work of new AIIMS and upgradation of medical colleges and hospitals.”
Giving insight about the upgradation of tertiary hospitals, the official said, “73 hospitals at tertiary level are approved for upgradation with one-time funding. In 2012, in phase III, funds worth Rs 150 crore were given by the centre and state government’s share was Rs 30 crore for each hospital. In phase IV, project with central contribution is Rs 200 crore with the central government sharing Rs 130 crore and rest is from state government.”
Touching upon the issue on the difficulties faced in operationalising the six AIIMS as there is an issue of getting enough faculties, the official informed, “We are looking for filling up the faculties. Out of the 1300 posts advertised, only 300 could be filled last year. Hence, we are re-advertising for all the posts. By July, we are likely to fill up the vacancies, but we are having problems in getting faculties, particularly at a senior level like additional professors and professors. Hence, we have also increased the upper age limit from 50 to 58. With this change, we are hopeful that the posts will be filled in six AIIMS this year.
Setting up of AIIMS under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) aims to correct the regional imbalances in availability of affordable/reliable tertiary level healthcare in the country in general, and to augment facilities for quality medical education in the under-served or backward states, in particular. Under Phase I of PMSSY, six AIIMS were set up, one each in Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Jodhpur, Patna, Raipur and Rishikesh in 2012; while construction of AIIMS, Rae Bareli is in progress. Also, three AIIMS in Nagpur (Maharashtra), Kalyani (West Bengal) and Mangalagiri in Guntur (AP) have been sanctioned in 2015. “The remaining AIIMS are targeted to be completed by March 2018” the official added.
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