10 patients die daily at AIIMS: Health Min data

According to the data released by the Union Health Ministry, around 8,000 patients are attended to by the AIIMS OPD every day, while the casualty department attends to 400 critical patients daily.

The data further suggests that around 10 deaths are reported from the premier medical institute daily. According to the Ministry’s data, 4,432 deaths were reported in 2012-13,   4,302 in 2013-14, 4,467 in 2014-15 and 2,802 till October this year.

The maximum number of deaths occurred at the gastroenterology department, where 536 patients died in 2012-13, 448 in 2013-14, 403 in 2014-15 and 223 till October 2015. 

The Jai Prakash Narayan Trauma Centre registered 631, 624, 544 and 472 deaths during the same period respectively.

The recent report released by the Health Ministry highlights the pressure faced by doctors and para-medical staff at the premier health institute. Patients, mostly from  other states, come to AIIMS as it provides affordable healthcare facility.

Efforts are been made to upgrade the infrastructure at the institute. Several super-specialty departments are being opened and many high dependency units (HDU) are being created to prevent mortalities.

According to sources in the hospital, approval has been given for 85 HDU and 106 ICU beds at AIIMS over the past three years.

To reduce the pressure on the premier health institute, the Centre has opened six AIIMS in other cities and is also proposing to set up seven more such institutes. These institutes will come up in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, J&K, Assam and Bihar.

The Health Ministry aims at achieving a target to a ratio of doctors: patients at 1:1,000 from 1:2,000 by 2021.To address the issue of shortage of doctors at premier health centres, the government is also mulling an increase in the number of MBBS seats and post-graduate seats.