AIIMS New Delhi, the capital's institution of national importance in medicine

Background

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) stands at Ansari Nagar, New Delhi - 110029. AIIMS records that “The health survey and development committee, chaired by Sir Joseph Bhore, an Indian Civil Servant, had in 1946 already recommended the establishment of a national medical centre which would concentrate on meeting the need for highly qualified manpower to look after the nation's expanding health care activities”. “A generous grant from New Zealand under the Colombo Plan made it possible to lay the foundation stone of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in 1952.” “The AIIMS was finally created in 1956, as an autonomous institution through an Act of Parliament, to serve as a nucleus for nurturing excellence in all aspect of health care.” It was “established as an institution of national importance by an Act of Parliament”, with the objects of developing patterns of undergraduate and postgraduate medical teaching, bringing educational facilities of the highest order together in one place, and attaining self-sufficiency in postgraduate medical education. As provided in the Act, AIIMS awards its own degrees. “Teaching and research are conducted in 42 disciplines”, and AIIMS reports “more than 600 research publications by its faculty and researchers in a year”. “Twenty-five clinical departments including four super specialty centers” handle patient care. AIIMS “also manages a 60-beded hospital in the Comprehensive Rural Health Centre at Ballabgarh in Haryana and provides health cover to about 2.5 lakh population through the Centre for Community Medicine”.