Srinagar, May 16: Terming SKIMS a premier tertiary care medical institution of the State, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Wednesday underscored the importance of its growth and development on modern lines.
“All measures need to be taken in this direction to develop it as one of the leading super specialty medicare centre in the country where modern treatment of highest degree would be available to the people of the State”, he said and referred to the priority given by the government for expansion, upgradation and infrastructure development in health and medical education sectors in the State.
The Chief Minister said that with the coming up of super specialty hospitals at Jammu and Srinagar, upgrading of JLNM Hospital Rainawari and Gandhi Nagar Hospital Jammu on modern lines and improvement in other existing hospitals would open a new phase in the progress of secondary and tertiary care health facilities in the State.
“We have laid equal focus on the coverage of rural and far-flung areas under best possible medical facility”, he said adding that district, sub-district and other hospitals in villages are receiving due attention for development on modern concepts.
Chairing the 38th meeting of Governing Body of SKIMS here this morning, the Chief Minister highlighted the importance of the institute in providing latest treatment for critical diseases and development of trained human resource in the health and medical education sectors.
The Chief Minister said that best service delivery should be benchmark of the functioning of all institutions adding that the centres associated with providing medical treatment to patients need all the more missionary spirit on delivery front.
The Chief Minister approved Screening-cum-Selection Committee for the appointment of Principal of the SKIMS Medical College, Bemina. He also approved training of Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation to Resident and Staff of SKIMS and renaming of the Department of Accident and Emergency as ‘Emergency Medicine’.
Minister for Finance, Abdul Rahim Rather, Minister for Health, Sham Lal Sharma, Minister of State for Health, Javid Ahmad Dar, Chief Secretary, Madhav Lal, Principal Secretary Finance, Muhammad Iqbal Khandey, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, B. B. Vyas, Secretary Health, M K. Dwivedi, Dean SKIMS, Dr. Khurshid Ahmad, Principal Medical College, Jammu, Dr. Allaqaband and Dr. Mehraj-ud-Din were present in the meeting.
In a PowerPoint presentation the Director SKIMS, Prof. Showkat Ali Zargar gave resume of the achievements registered by the institution during last one year in various disciplines.
He said that OPD works daily in almost all specialties and MRD and Blood Collection takes place from 9 am to 4 pm while concept of using existing facilities of Day care centre, MRI and CT Machine and Haemodialysis Machines from 6 hours to 12 hours has been incorporated in functioning schedule of the institution.
He said construction of 24-bedded Day care centre for Cancer patients has been started and is likely to be completed in two months. While 14-bedded Haemodialysis Centre has been made operational and 11-bedded Critical Care Unit will function within one month.
He said that 28 more seats have been added in MD/MS courses this year and for the first time 25 students have been admitted to the MSc Nursing course. He said that Gama Camera has been made operational while MD Pathology, MD Paediatrics, MD Microbiology and DM Gastroenterology have been recognized by the Medical Council of India while new courses in Surgical Gastroenterology and Gynaecology & Obstetrics are starting this year, Paediatric Surgery and Neurology courses are in the pipeline.
The Director SKIMS said that Linear Accelerator for Cancer patients, Dual-Head Gama Camera, Mechanical Extra Corporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy have been operationalized and High Dependency 4-beds in all general wards introduced.
Prof. Zargar said that the government has in principle approved upgradation of SKIMS and SKIMS Medical College for development of infrastructure and machinery equipment to create better advanced medical facilities.
He said that the upgradation project for SKIMS which was initially approved for Rs. 262 crores has now been revised to Rs. 767.95 crores to incorporate five projects of additional Ward Block involving Rs. 235.39 crore, Accidental Emergency Block costing Rs. 179.18 crore, New OPD Block at Rs. 47.88 crore, SKIMS Medical College at Rs. 60 crore, Trauma Centre and Regional Cancer Centre and Critical Care Department estimating Rs. 245.45 crores in the overall upgradation programme.
The meeting reviewed the follow-up action taken on the decisions of previous meeting of the Governing Body and discussed matters relating to various aspects of the development and growth of the institution.
The Chief Minister directed the SKIMS management to route the matters relating to academics and finances through the Academic and Finance Committees for final decision by the Governing Body.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 16 May 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 16 May 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 17 May 2012 00:00:00 IST