Patna: The Centre today promised one more AIIMS to Bihar to strengthen its health infrastructure and assured cooperation in initiatives to improve medicare facilities in the state.
The announcement to open one more AIIMS in Bihar was made by Union Health Minister J P Nadda.
Nadda said after meeting with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar that he has urged the CM to make land available for another AIIMS, besides the one in Patna.
Nadda who made a trip to AIIMS Patna, said his ministry was making all efforts to make the institution fully functional as soon as possible.
The Union Health Minister said his ministry was sorting out bottlenecks like administrative, faculty and construction issues at AIIMS Patna.
Nadda said during the meeting with Kumar, he assured all cooperation from the Centre to the state's health sector initiatives to tackle problems like outbreak of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) and Japanese Encephalitis (JE), which were taking a toll on lives in Muzaffarpur and other parts of the state.
He said he had told the Chief Minister that vaccination against these diseases should not be an one time affair, but sustained efforts were needed to deal with it permanently.
To a question on MCI (Medical Council of India) not allowing seats in Medical collages in Bihar, Nadda said six medical colleges of Bihar had sought 50 additional seats each.
MCI has a set of norms for approving additional seats in any medical college, which they follow strictly for better regulation.
The Centre's role was to help the MCI enforce its code, the minister said.
Nadda also had a meeting with state Health department officials for better cooperation in the sector between the Centre and the state.
Bihar Health minister Ramdhani Singh, Principal Secretary Health, Brajesh Mehrotra and Secretary Anand Kishore were present during the meeting with the central team.
