The Union cabinet on December 17 approved establishment of two new All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) -- one each in Tamil Nadu and Telangana.

The Tamil Nadu AIIMS would come up at Madurai at a cost of Rs 1,264 crore, while the Telangana's one would be built at Bibinagar at a cost of Rs 1,028 crore, an official statement said. The two new institutes will be set up under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY).

"Setting up of new AIIMS would not only transform health education and training but also address the shortfall of health care professionals in the region," and official statement said. The new AIIMS will provide super speciality health care to the population while creating a large pool of doctors and other health workers in this region that can be available for primary and secondary level institutions and facilities being created under National Health Mission (NHM), the statement said. 

Each new AIIMS will add 100 UG (MBBS) seats and 60 BSc (Nursing) seats and will have 15-20 super specialty departments. Each new AIIMS will add around 750 hospital beds, it said. As per data of current functional AIIMS, it is expected that each new AIIMS would cater to around 1,500 outdoor patients per day.

Establishment of new AIIMS involves creation of hospital, teaching block for medical and nursing courses, residential complex and allied facilities/services, broadly on the pattern of AIIMS, New Delhi, and other six new AIIMS taken up under Phase-I of PMSSY. The proposed institution will have a hospital with capacity of 750 beds which will include emergency/trauma beds, AYUSH beds, private beds and ICU speciality and super speciality beds. 

In addition, there will be a medical college, AYUSH block, auditorium, night shelter, guest house, hostels and residential facilities. The recurring cost on these Institutions shall be met through grant-in-aid to them from plan budget head of PMSSY of Ministry of Health.

The timeframe for establishment of the new AIIMS will be 45 months, broadly comprising a pre-construction phase of 10 months, a construction phase of 32 months and stabilization/commissioning phase of 3 months. Construction of new AIIMS is fully funded by the central government.