PM Modi to lay stone for 200-bedded National Centre on Ageing at IMS-BHU

Varanasi: A National Centre on Ageing (Department of Geriatrics Medicine) will come up at the Institute of Medical Science (IMS), BHU, with PM Narendra Modi slated to lay the foundation stone of the centre during his proposed visit on Feb 23. 

The Centre will be built with a budget of Rs 147.39 crore. 

Talking to TOI, divisional commissioner Kaushal Raj Sharma said with a budget of Rs 147.39 crore, the multi-storey building of centre will be constructed on an area of 2,045 square metre. It will have connectivity with super specialty hospitals to avail facilities of cardiology, gastroenterology, neurology, urology, surgery and other departments for senior citizens.

Providing details of the project, nodal officer of BHU’s Regional Geriatric Centre Prof Anup Singh said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) had launched National Programme for Health Care of the Elderly (NPHCE) in 2010-11 to provide accessible, affordable and high-quality long-term care services to elderly people and IMS-BHU was designated as Regional Geriatric Centre (RGC), under NPHCE. Two primary objectives of RGC-- creation of a full-fledged independent Department of Geriatric Medicine and initiation of MD Geriatrics course (3 seat/year)--have been achieved.

Sir Sunderlal Hospital of BHU caters to healthcare to around two crore elderly people of eastern UP and adjoining states. In view of increasing population of elderly citizens, the proposal for further upgradation of RGC and Department of Geriatric Medicine to 200 bedded National Centre of Ageing (NCA) under NPHCE had been sent and it was approved by the govt, he added.

Besides, the postgraduate MD Geriatric seats will be increased from 3 to 15 with increase in seats of senior residents and faculty in geriatrics and manpower to run the facility.

“The centre will not only fulfil the requirement of geriatric field of the eastern part and adjoining areas of Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Nepal of India but also conduct research to prepare guidelines for special treatment required for elderly people. He said that it will also help in making elderly people self-reliant,” Singh said.