The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Bibinagar in Telangana will be fully operational by December this year, Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda said on Thursday, July 9 after reviewing the progress of the institute, adding that construction has reached 87% completion. 

Addressing the media after inspecting the campus, the Union Minister said the institute was sanctioned in June 2022 with an approved cost of ₹1,100 crore and had become operational within a short span. He said the institute currently has 132 faculty members and 133 senior residents. Two batches of MBBS students have completed their courses, while postgraduate programmes are being offered in 24 MD disciplines and five DM super-speciality courses.

“Outpatient services for all major specialities are operational and the institute currently records an average daily outpatient footfall of around 1,800 patients. Inpatient services and emergency care have also commenced. Advanced diagnostic facilities, including CT scan, MRI and DEXA scan, are available at the institute,” he added.

Highlighting the institute’s digital healthcare initiatives, he said telemedicine services through the eSanjeevani platform had benefited more than 1.56 lakh patients. He added that services under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) were also being provided at the institute.

Mr. Nadda said AIIMS institutions must develop into research-driven centres alongside providing quality patient care. “AIIMS Bibinagar has already secured research grants worth about ₹64 crore and is currently implementing 129 research projects. Faculty members had also submitted 1,156 research applications, reflecting the institute’s growing research ecosystem,” he said.

Describing AIIMS Bibinagar as a full-fledged patient care and research institution in the making, Mr. Nadda also praised its outreach activities in community medicine. He said the institute had established the first community radio station among all AIIMS in the country. It has also adopted six villages and conducted 547 medical camps over the past three years, providing healthcare services to 66,148 patients.

On the progress of construction, Mr. Nadda said the remaining work was being closely monitored through weekly reviews by the Executive Director of AIIMS Bibinagar and periodic reviews by the Union Health Ministry’s Additional Secretary every two months.

He said completing the project involved significant engineering challenges as the institute was being developed by upgrading the infrastructure of an existing State medical college rather than being built entirely from scratch. Extensive retrofitting, restructuring and refurbishment were required to bring the facilities up to AIIMS standards, he said.