By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Oct 14: It was quite an inauguration spree at NEIGRIHMS on Saturday when Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Mansukh Mandaviya opened the regional cancer centre, a new under-graduate medical college, new nursing college building, hostels, eight modular operation theatres, a virtual autopsy room and a new guest house.
Mandaviya also laid the foundation stone for a 150-bed critical care block at NEIGRIHMS.
Addressing the gathering, the Union minister outlined the central government’s commitment toward improving the health infrastructure in the Northeast in order to provide quality healthcare services to the people of the region.
He said that the new facilities at NEIGRIHMS will help attract medical professionals and also retain them in the Northeast.
He also reiterated the Centre’s commitment towards further developing the infrastructure at NEIGRIHMS to make it the hub for medical treatment, research and training of healthcare professionals for the entire region.
He was all praise for the work culture and cleanliness in NEIGRIHMS.
“We are not only creating new and advanced medical infrastructure but also increasing the number of doctors and nursing staff. In the last nine years, the number of medical colleges has doubled in the country while 1.7 lakh health and wellness centres have been created across the country. We are also building one critical care unit in each district of the country,” he said.
Mandaviya said the number of MBBS seats in the country has increased from 50,000 to 1.07 lakh in just nine years since 2014.
“For quality education, the National Medical Commission was formed and to ensure quality health, the government aims to develop a health institute of national importance in every state, similar to AIIMS.
“It is our plan to develop NEIGRIHMS as an institute of national importance,” Mandaviya said.
NEIGRIHMS Director Nalin Mehta was confident that the new facilities will significantly improve healthcare facilities in the premier institute and will lead to increase in the number of seats for MBBS and Nursing courses in Meghalaya.
He further said that with the improvement of medical facilities in the Northeast, people will not have to go to other parts of the country to avail medical treatment.
One of the key highlights of the new facilities inaugurated on Saturday is the virtual autopsy facility at NEIGRIHMS, which is one of the most advanced and sophisticated available anywhere in the country.
Virtual autopsy is a non-invasive post-mortem examination that uses medical imaging technology to create a 3D model of the body, which can then be examined by forensic pathologists and other medical professionals.
The 150-bed standalone critical care unit is being constructed under the Pradhan Mantri – Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM) to treat highly contagious diseases, such as COVID-19. This will help ensure that regular hospital care remains unaffected during such outbreaks.