Dr Harsh Vardhan lays Foundation Stone of Sports Injury Expansion Project at Safdarjung Hospital

Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare (HFW) Dr Harsh Vardhan laid the foundation of Sports Injury Expansion Project at Safdarjung Hospital in the presence of Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State (MoS), HFW recently. Speaking on the occasion, Dr Harsh Vardhan said, “I want National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) to make a sincere effort to finish the work in one year as against the eighteen months stipulated by it with the target of building the best sport injury centre in the world.”

He also stated, “Under our beloved and inspirational Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji, there is a renewed focus on sports and the government is encouraging it like never before. The charismatic Prime Minister has said that New India should also be a Fit India, and he has launched the FitIndia Campaign to inspire people from all walks of life to adopt healthy lifestyle.”

The Union Minister also said that under the leadership of our Prime Minister, we are aggressively moving towards setting up state-of-the-art health facilities with the best equipment, techniques and buildings. “These facilities are comparable to the very best in the country and the world, and it’s not only in Delhi, but such facilities are being created all over the country,” he said. As we move towards the vision of the Prime Minister of a New India by 2022, health shall be one of the key determinants and components of our advanced country, he informed.

Speaking further, he said that Sports Injury Centre shall be one of the most modern state-of-the-art sports injury centres in the world with the best facilities comparable to any part of the world. It shall cover every aspect of the sports injury. It will provide diagnostic, physiotherapy, rehabilitative, surgical and inpatient facilities, etc, to people suffering from sports and related injuries under one roof.

According to him, one of the priorities of the government is to expand quality tertiary healthcare facilities in all parts of the country. With the announcement of new AIIMS, the total number of AIIMS has gone up to 22. Further, super specialty blocks, along with MCH wings are being set up in many district hospitals and medical colleges across the country. Apart from the already planned 82, additional 75 new medical colleges will be set up all over the country by 2022. These new medical colleges will come up in under-served areas having no medical college; with at least 200-bedded district hospitals. Preference will be given to aspirational districts and district hospitals having 300 beds, he added. This has been approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).

Ashwini Kumar Choubey, MoS, HFW, congratulated Safdarjung Hospital for providing a gamut of services to the people. He also laid stress on completing the project before the deadline and stated that ‘sarvesantuniramaya’ i.e. ‘health for all’ is the policy mandate of the government and we will make all efforts towards fulfilling the same.

Sports Injury Expansion Project

There is an exponential increase in the number of patients visiting the Sports Injury Centre from 52,133 in 2011 to 1,20,101 in 2018. Once completed, the new centre will have an increased bed strength of 156 (including HDU and ICU beds) compared to the existing 42 beds and the centre will have a larger area. It will bring this centre to global standards of excellence. The expansion will also help in increasing the PG seats to create trained manpower that can spread across India and treat sportsmen at the field level. The expansion will develop state-of-the-art labs to train doctors of India for surgical and non-surgical management of sports injuries.

The expansion will also reduce the waiting period of surgery for sportsmen (current waiting three months), so that they can return to sports activities at the earliest. Facilities like gait lab, 3-D motion analysis system, underwater training system, etc, for managing sportsmen and sports-related injuries and training purposes are envisaged to be part of the expansion project. The specialty of sports medicine will be further strengthened by initiating research in various sub specialties of sports medicine. It will help to create an education system for sportsmen and to devise protocols for sports-specific performance enhancement. The total cost involved for expansion of the Sports Injury Centre is Rs 483 crores.

Preeti Sudan, Secretary, Health; Sanjeeva Kumar, Special Secretary, Health; Dr Arya, Director, SCI, along with other senior officers from the Ministry of Health and faculty from the Safdarjung Hospital were also present at the occasion.