Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare along with Sh. Aswini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Sh. Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh digitally inaugurated the Super Speciality Block (SSB) at the Shyam Shah Government Medical College, Rewa, Madhya Pradesh.

The 200-bedded Super Speciality Block is built with an investment of Rs 150 crores under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) of Government of India. It has departments of Neurology, Neurosurgery, Nephrology, Urology, Cardiology, CTVS, Neonatology and Pulmonary Medicine. There will be six modular Operation Theaters, 200 Super Specialty Beds, 30 ICU Beds and eight ventilators in the SSB. This facility will have a training capacity of 14 Post Graduate students.

Inaugurating the Super Speciality Block, Dr Harsh Vardhan congratulated the people of Rewa and Madhya Pradesh. He said, “This will make India self reliant in medical services. The SSB will provide state-of-the-art tertiary health care services to the people who earlier had to travel to other big cities to avail of the facilities.”

The Union Health Minister fondly recalled the Independence Day Address of 2003 of Late Prime Minister Sh. Atal Bihari Vajpayee to set up six AIIMS type hospitals under Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana. Dr Harsh Vardhan said, “The government under the visionary and progressive guidance of Prime Minister Sh. Narendra Modi ji is committed to providing affordable medical care facility in all the regions. The number of AIIMS has been increased from 6 to 22 while another 75 existing institutions are envisioned to be upgraded to provide AIIMS like services.” He also informed that the Union Government has sanctioned upgradation of Medical Colleges in the district of  Rajgarh, Mandla, Neemuch, Mandsaur, Sheopur, Singrauli and Maheshwar under Phase 3 of PMSSY in 2019-20.

On India’s fight against COVID-19, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said, “Since last nine months, India is relentlessly fighting the infectious disease. India’s continuously rising Recovery Rate and progressively falling active cases have proven the success of the Centre-led COVID-19 containment strategy. We have successfully ramped up our testing capacity which has crossed more than 8 cr milestone in terms of total tests. From 1 lab in January, we now have 1889 labs spread across the country. I have confidence in the scientific developments taking place in the field of treatment and vaccines for COVID-19 and soon India will achieve more success in our fight against COVID-19.”

Dr Harsh Vardhan also urged people to follow COVID appropriate behaviour. He reminded people about the Social Vaccine of wearing masks/face covers while in public, following hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette, and maintaining physical distancing or Do Gaz ki Doori to curb spread of the infection.

Sh. Shivraj Singh Chauhan thanked the Union Government for its proactive role in strengthening the health infrastructure in Madhya Pradesh. He said, “This is a proud moment for Madhya Pradesh and the people of Rewa. With this, the training of the medical students for super speciality services can be started which will not only give good doctors to the country but people will be benefitted with such high quality medical services. This will be an additional effort in the direction of correcting the regional imbalances of the medical services in the country.  Speaking on the timely importance of the new SSB built under the scheme, he said that people of adjoining region like Shahdol division, Sagar Division, and adjoining districts of Uttar Pradesh can also avail of the superior quality of medical services.”

Shri Sunil Sharma, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Shri Vishvas Sarang, Minister of Medical Education, Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation, Madhya Pradesh, Shri Rajmani Patel, Member of Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh, Shri Janardan Mishra, Member of Lok Sabha from Rewa, along with senior dignitaries were present at the event.

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MV/SJ

HFW/ HFM SSB Rewa/7thOctober2020/2