New Delhi: The National Ageing Centre at AIIMS Delhi will start functioning this month.
The project was initiated by the Union health ministry in 2016. Apart from AIIMS Delhi, the project will also run at Madras Medical College, Chennai.
“The construction of the new building is over. Purchasing MRI machines and some other medical equipment and machinery is left. The existing geriatric department will also shift to this new building. The centre will start functioning from the middle of next month. We will begin with OPD services first,” said a senior AIIMS doctor, privy to the matter
The department of geriatrics has over 15 resident doctors. “The recruitment for the centre has already begun…some have been recruited and more are in the process. There is a shortage of staff at the moment. So we will need more experts to run the new centre,” the doctor said.
In 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the centre and it was scheduled to start functioning in 2021. But the project couldn’t be completed on time due to the pandemic. “There was also some delay from Make In India. But still, the project got completed quite early if compared to other projects at AIIMS,” the doctor noted.
Both National Centres of Ageing are expected to become centres of excellence in the field of geriatric care in the country. The centres will be able to deliver healthcare, train health professionals and conduct research activities, along with providing 200-bedded in-patient services.
The centre will have 20 ICU medical beds, 10 preoperative beds, 10 postoperative beds, and 15 postoperative ICU beds. There will also be 20 paid ward beds.
The centre will also offer postgraduate courses in geriatric medicine, geriatric surgery, geriatric anesthesiology, geriatric psychiatry, and geriatric rehabilitation.
