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Union joint health secretary inspects facilities at PGIMER Chandigarh
During his visit, the joint secretary chaired a meeting, which was attended by PGIMER director Dr Surjit Singh, senior faculty members and senior administrative officials
Dr Mandeep Bhandari, joint secretary, Union ministry of health and family welfare, visited the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) on Wednesday to review the progress made under the Swachhata Pakhwada initiative.
The initiative aims at promoting public health, based on sanitation and infection control.
During his visit, the joint secretary chaired a meeting, which was attended by PGIMER director Dr Surjit Singh, and senior faculty members and senior administrative officials, including dean (Academics) Dr GD Puri, medical superintendent-cum-head, department of hospital administration, Dr Vipin Koushal, deputy director (Administration) Gaurav Dhawan, financial adviser Kumar Abhay and additional medical superintendent-cum-official spokesperson Ashok Kumar.
A detailed presentation about PGIMER’s academic growth over the last 60 years was made before Dr Bhandari. He was also apprised of the hospital structure, advanced centres of patient care, training and research and some of the pioneering achievements made by the institute during its journey.
Dr Bhandari was also updated about the institute’s Swacchta Action Plan, with a special thrust on IEC, bio-medical waste, hand hygiene and digitisation of records.
Officials shared that the ever-increasing patient load at PGIMER can be tackled by dealing with referrals at the level of district hospitals and medical colleges by strengthening the peripheral health infrastructure.
However, as patients still prefer to come to PGIMER for their treatment, a multi-pronged strategy was required to deal with the patient rush, they said. The joint secretary assured quick redress of the administrative bottlenecks.
