The Odisha government aims to set up four new medical colleges and upgrade 147 hospitals under ‘Ama Hospital’ programme besides developing a cancer care institute, a senior health department official said.
The new medical colleges are proposed to come up in Kalahandi, Talcher, Jajpur and Kandhamal, while the state government has sanctioned Rs 750 crore under ‘Ama Hospital’ programme, according to an official statement.
“The government was in the process of establishing dedicated cancer and cardiac care hospitals in Jharsuguda in a PPP mode,” Shalini Pandit, secretary health and family welfare, said. She further added that “seven new Medical Colleges have been inaugurated in the past few years while four more medical colleges are in the process. The capital hospital Bhubaneswar has been upgraded to a post graduate institute.”
Furthemore, the establishment of Odisha University of Health Sciences is underway, pandit said, adding that affordable healthcare projects for setting up hospitals providing specialist care have been planned in four locations like Angul, Barbil, Jharsuguda and Bhadrak, in PPP mode.
Another 200 bed cancer hospital is in the process of being set up by Tata Memorial Center in collaboration with Government of Odisha and Department of Atomic Energy on the NISER campus, as per the statement.
“Odisha is the first and only state in the country to mandate free treatment for all persons, in all public health facilities,” Pandit said. The free services include free drugs, diagnostics, OPD, IPD, surgery, ICU, in all government healthcare facilities, from primary health centres to medical college hospitals, she added.