Bhubaneswar: The Out-Patient Department (OPD) is likely to start functioning on the permanent campus of AIIMS-Bhubaneswar’s satellite centre in Odisha’s Balasore district in the next few months.
“We are hoping to inaugurate it by the end of June,” IIMS Bhubaneswar Director Dr Gitanjali Batmanabane was quoted as saying by the Times of India.
She informed that the building had been constructed and flooring and other interior work were underway.
This will help to bring down the number of patients visiting the AIIMS-Bhubaneswar from north Odisha districts for treatment.
Notably, a temporary weekly OPD service, which was started at the community centre of Defence Colony in Balasore on July 8, 2017, was suspended due to the COVID pandemic.
The satellite centre in Balasore is coming up on around 25 acres. “The agency which is executing the OPD building work will hand over the building to AIIMS Bhubaneswar in June. The OPD will be opened six days a week. Some consultants will stay there. The phase-II work will also start soon,” said an official of the institute.
Besides the OPD building (G+2 floors and consisting of A, B, C blocks), two blocks of staff quarters are being constructed in phase-I.
While Rs 35.76 crore was sanctioned for the OPD building, staff quarters through the Central Public Works Department (CPWD). Rs 2.5 crore was sanctioned for medical equipment and instruments.
In phase-II, it will be upgraded to a multi-speciality hospital for which a DPR is being prepared. The work will continue on getting a green light from the government, she added.
