SRINAGAR: Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Saturday inaugurated a dedicated block housing 20 state-of-the-art operation theatres at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Jammu, saying the facility would reduce the need for patients to travel outside the Union Territory for advanced medical treatment.
Speaking to reporters after the inauguration, Singh, Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, described the development as another milestone in the institute’s growth.
However, he acknowledged that shortages of faculty in certain specialities were limiting resident seats in some departments and occasionally affecting the expansion of academic courses.
Singh said Jammu and Kashmir was perhaps the only Union Territory in the country to have two AIIMS, one at Vijaypur in Jammu’s Samba district and the other at Awantipora in Kashmir.
He attributed the establishment of AIIMS Jammu to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal intervention, saying the Prime Minister had insisted that if one institution was sanctioned for Srinagar, another should also be established in Jammu.
The inauguration marks an expansion of the institute’s surgical infrastructure, with the new block expected to strengthen its capacity to provide specialised medical care within the Union Territory.
