Union minister inaugurates new facilities at RIMS

Our Correspondent
Imphal, Feb. 28 (EMN): Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Harsh Vardhan today inaugurated four facilities at Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS). The facilities that inaugurated today included new MRI block with 3-Tesla MRI machine, new PG ladies hostel (100 capacity), new Neuro ICU block and newly constructed college of nursing block.

Vardhan also inaugurated the recently developed facilities in the presence of Lok Sabha MP RK Ranjan Singh, Rajya Sabha MP Maharaja Sanajaoba Leishemba, state principal secretary of Health and Family Welfare Vumlunmang Vualnam, director of RIMS Prof Ahanthem Santa Singh, and RIMS medical superintendent Prof. H Priyosakhi Devi among others.

Addressing the occasion, Vardhan stated that the present government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, since the year 2014, is beating hearts for development of northeast and its people adding in cabinet meetings, he personally reviews all the plans for every minister.

“Various union ministers are consistently and continuously visiting northeast region on regular basis, drafting plans and ensuring for successful implementation of the programmes and schemes,” Vardhan said. He added that the PM himself monitors every sector including health, education, communication etc.

On the health sector, Vardhan stated that Ayushman Bharat is one of the most ambitious programmes of the government and that there was no comparison to the scheme in all over the world. He said around 45-60 crores of poor people of the country have access to any of the 24,000 hospitals of the country under the Ayushman scheme.

Vardhan also lauded the RIMS authority for enabling completion of the facilities despite the hardships being faced by the authority due to Covid-19 induced lockdown. The union minister has assured all possible assistance from his ministry to develop the RIMS as one of the best healthcare centres not only in the northeast region but also in the country.

Vardhan also informed that the centre has decided to create 75 new medical colleges in remote districts of the state where the people continue to suffer for years and are deprived of basic healthcare, education and all other facilities. As part of this initiative of Narendra Modi, he said Manipur would get a new medical college at Churachandpur.

He further appealed to all the staff of RIMS for full support in eliminating Tuberculosis by 2025 or before the stipulating target year of the central government.

Earlier in his keynote, RIMS director Prof. Santa presented highlighted the growth of the institution as well as the relentless services rendered by the staff during the Covid-19 pandemic. He informed that RIMS is in the top 40 list of the national institutional ranking among the 500 medical institutions of the country for the last two consecutive years.