Srinagar, Jan 30: Highlighting the importance of SKIMS as a prestigious tertiary healthcare institute in the State, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Wednesday said that it has to attain new highs and become one of the leading super-specialty hospitals in the country.
“My government has flagged health sector as one of the most important sectors in the State’s development policy and attention has been focused to universalize modern healthcare facilities across the State”, Omar said while chairing the Governing Body meeting of SKIMS held here. He added that SKIMS and other super-specialty hospitals coming up in Srinagar and Jammu in government sector have an important role in this regard.
Omar Abdullah said that growth and development of health sector in rural areas is one of the priority concerns of his government and improvement of delivery on this front will relieve the pressure on hospitals in the cities and towns, as such the government has underlined this aspect as a thrust area.
The Chief Minister said that along with infrastructure development, the development and growth of faculties and various disciplines of super-specialty nature should go side by side to provide modern medical facilities to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
The meeting was attended by Minister for Medical Education Taj Mohi-ud-Din, Minister of State for Health Shabir Ahmad Khan, Financial Commissioner Finance Muhammad Iqbal Khandey, Principal Secretary Planning B. R. Sharma, Commissioner Secretary Health and Medical Education M. K. Dwivedi, Director SKIMS Prof Showkat Ahmad Zargar and other senior officers.
In a PowerPoint presentation, Dr. Zargar gave resume of the functioning of SKIMS making special reference to the upgradation and improvement in the infrastructure and placement of modern health equipment in place to address the increasing needs.
He also gave brief about the development of Bemina Hospital being run by SKIMS and said that a project involving over Rs. 120 crore has been prepared for expansion and upgradation of the hospital. He also gave resume of the proposal in pipeline for enhancing the capacity of the hospital from present 200-beds to 400-bed capacity.
The Chief Minister also received brief about the establishment of Cath Lab in SKIMS which is likely to cost over Rs 8 crores.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 30 Jan 2013 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 30 Jan 2013 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 31 Jan 2013 00:00:00 IST