Chandigarh (Aditi) : Preparations are in full swing ahead of Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s visit to the border town of Ferozepur on January 5 for laying the foundation stone for PGIMER’s Satellite Center at Ferozepur.
Shri Banwari Lal Purohit, Hon’ble Governor of Punjab, Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, Hon’ble Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare and S. Charanjit Singh Channi, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Punjab will also have their august presence at the foundation stone laying ceremony of the PGIMER’ Satellite Center by the Hon’ble Prime Minister scheduled to take place at 1.00 pm on Wednesday, 5th January, 2021.
A team of senior officials from the PGI, Chandigarh, along with district officials is already present in Ferozepur to oversee preparations for the big ticket event.
With a budget of 490.5 crores the new satellite center at Ferozpur is planned to house 100 indoor beds. This includes 30 intensive care and high dependency beds. It is planned to house 10 clinical specialty departments and five other supporting departments. It will also house minor and major operation theaters. The building will be constructed using the latest techniques and is proposed to be a platinum-rated green hospital.
With PGIMER’s prominence as a center of excellence in the region, the patient load at the institute has been constantly rising in the past decades to present levels. The emergency and routine services are finding it difficult to cope with the patient load. Secondly, families have to travel long distances to avail services at PGIMER. Thus, it became imperative that newer outreach models of service to the public be explored.
With this in mind three satellite centers of PGIMER were sanctioned by the central government in Una ( HP), Sangrur (PB) and Ferozpur (PB). In total, these three satellite centers will add 700 outreach beds for patient care apart from offering OPD services to the public. A budget of 449 crores and 300 beds have been sanctioned for the center at Sangrur. The construction of the hospital at Sangrur is nearing completion and its OPD services have started. Construction at both centers at Ferozepur and Una is anticipated to finish by 2024.