Coimbatore : Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Ashwini Kumar Choubey today asked Tamil Nadu Government to expedite the process to identify the location for setting up AIIMS, as announced by the Centre some time ago.

After inaugurating a 230-bed international super specialty facility at Sri Ramakrishna Hospital here, Choubey said the Prime Minister had announced 20 AIIMS under Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY), in which six had already become functional.

Six new AIIMS would be ready by March 2020, another two by 2021 he said and five by 2022 and one more AIIMS in Pulwama in Kashmir by March 2024. Choubey said that he had asked Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edapadi Palanisamy, when he met recently, to speed up the process to identify the location to start the AIIMS.

He said the Centre had increased by 11.5 per cent the budgetary allocation fromRs 47.352 crore last year to Rs 52,800 crore in 2018-19 which would help provide morehealth services to the common man.

Similarly, there was an increase of 14 per cent in the allocation for National Health Mission from Rs 21,940.70 crore to Rs 24,908.61 crore this year, with special allocation of Rs1,200 crore to focus on primary health services, he said.

For the first time, the Government had allotted Rs 2,000 crore for the benefit of 10 crore poor and deprived class with an insurance scheme of Rs 5 lakh per family, thus benefiting 50 crore people, Choubey said,. Tamil Nadu Municipal Administration Minister, SP Velumani lauded the services of the hospital, particularly to the poor.

The Rs 230-crore facility, with seven state-of-the-art operation theatres and a 11-bedded ICU, had a host of medical equipment including range of ultrasound, digital X-ray, stealth station, diagnostic cardiology, ventilators, anaesthesia and warmers, SNR Sons Charitable Trust Managing Trustee R Vijayakumar, who runs the hospital, said.

The facility was also promoting medical tourism and patients from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and SAARC countries were undergoing treatment and more countries would soon have tieup with hospital, he added.