The government’s aim is to have institutions like the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in every State, and a medical college in every district of the country, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, adding that the last mile delivery of healthcare was not possible with the network of AIIMS limited to six-seven States.
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“Every State should have an AIIMS-like institute,” Mr. Modi said while digitally inaugurating 35 PSA (pressure swing adsorption) oxygen plants in different locations across 35 States and Union Territories from the AIIMS-Rishikesh in Uttarakhand.
On the target of opening one medical college in every district, he noted that colleges have been opened in 170 districts.
Stating that the COVID-19 crisis has been “the crisis of the century”, the Prime Minister said, “India’s oxygen production capacity of 900MT has increased more than tenfold since intervention”.
“The management of production and transportation of oxygen in the time of crisis on a war footing set an example in itself. Oxygen tankers were flown out, special oxygen express [trains] were run, the DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) used the oxygen collection technology of Tejas aircraft to deploy the first oxygen plants,” he said, adding that massive work was undertaken thereafter.
“All districts now have at least one PSA plant made available to them, and the Centre, along with the States, has commissioned 4,000 new oxygen plants. One lakh concentrators were also installed with a focus on geographically distant areas,” he said.
Speaking on the occasion, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said that India had not only developed the COVID-19 vaccine but also ensured its wide availability.
