Sonia Gandhi to inaugurate premier health institution

Conceived by former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi more than two decades ago, North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute for Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) will be formally inaugurated by Congress president Sonia Gandhi tomorrow.

State health minister Mukul Sangma said Gandhi will have a first-hand knowledge of the facilities here. 

"Many proposals of the institute are pending with the Centre. Her visit will help in boosting support from health ministry," Sangma said.

The institute, designated as a centre of excellence by health ministry, plans to begin its telemedicine project shortly.

Designed in the lines of AIIMS New Delhi, PGIMER Chandigarh, NEIGRIHMS has been the first and the only post-graduate medical institute in North-East and third in the country established by health and family welfare ministry.
  
NEIGRIHMS has been functioning since 2002, first as an interim facility and later from its sprawling campus on the outskirts of Shillong but formal inauguration was pending, sources said.

The institute has been battling the shortage of faculty, leading to slow pace of functioning.