Kerala’s much-anticipated and decades-long dream of getting an All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)-like establishment on its soil was dashed but once more when the proposal discovered no point out within the Union Finances 2024-25 offered by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on July 23.
In contrast to within the earlier years, the anticipation this yr that the undertaking may lastly come by way of was intense, notably due to the presence of two Union Ministers of State from Kerala on the Centre, one in every of whom is the BJP’s first-ever elected MP from the State.
On July 22 too, the subject of approving an AIIMS-like establishment for Kerala had been raised in Rajya Sabha by John Brittas, MP.
Nevertheless, not simply AIIMS, no main proposals for the nation’s well being sector appeared to determine within the Union Finances 2024-25, apart from the exemption of three extra most cancers medicine from customs duties.
The overall allocation for the nation’s well being sector within the Finances is ₹89,287 crore. The Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana has an allocation of ₹7,500 crore and the well being protection below the scheme has been prolonged to accredited social well being activists (ASHA), anganwadi staff and helpers.
AIIMS was established as an autonomous establishment in New Delhi below the Act of Parliament in 1956 and is at the moment the apex medical establishment within the nation.
It is just after 2012 that the Centre started organising AIIMS-like establishments throughout the nation, below the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY), a scheme introduced in 2003, with the aims of correcting regional imbalances within the availability of inexpensive/dependable tertiary healthcare companies in addition to augmenting services for high quality medical training within the nation.
There are at the moment 22 AIIMS-like establishments within the nation, a few of that are operational, whereas the remaining are in numerous phases of growth.
A political and emotional challenge
Over the previous decade, having an AIIMS-like establishment has turn into a political in addition to emotional challenge for Kerala and the sensation that the Centre was wilfully denying the State its due has been constructing.
The difficulty took on a lot political color and was a much-debated subject of debate within the State within the run as much as the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in addition to the post-election debates, with many distinguished MPs partaking in a disagreement over “unfulfilled promises.”
Whereas the Kerala authorities appeared to have finalised Kinalur in Kozhikode as the best location to determine an AIIMS-like establishment, Thiruvananthapuram, Palakkad and currently, Kasaragod have all been vying for the privilege.
Kerala Well being Minister Veena George had knowledgeable the State Meeting in June that the Centre had accepted Kerala’s selection of Kinalur in Kozhikode to be the location for the proposed AIIMS-like establishment however that the ultimate approval on the undertaking was nonetheless being awaited.
