Centre-run hospitals in NCR want 13% raise in allocation

livemint.com:

₹9,000 crore from the upcoming interim budget, which will be presented next week by Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, according to officials from these hospitals. The government hospitals are expected to see an overall jump in allocation of around 13% this year. Apart from AIIMS Delhi, the other three hospitals are: Safdarjung Hospital, Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital and Lady Hardinge Medical College.

In the previous Union budget, these four hospitals were given an outlay of ₹8,027 crore, with AIIMS Delhi getting most. AIIMS Delhi, a premier institute, has sought a budgetary allocation of ₹4,450 crore this time, 7% more than what was allocated last year, according to officials from the institute. In the 2023-24 Union budget, the hospital was allocated ₹4,134 crore, of which it has so far received ₹3,720 crore.

According to the hospital administration, the rise in budget expectations has been placed considering more expansion programmes and payment of salaries, including those who are appointed on a contractual basis. “The institute has come up with new buildings recently and we need to maintain those. Also, the existing old buildings need more maintenance.

And so we are hoping that our budget will be increased this time," said an official. Being an autonomous institute, AIIMS Delhi gets a separate budget, which is higher than those of other centrally run hospitals. Standing opposite to AIIMS Delhi is Safdarjung Hospital, which has this time demanded around ₹2,200 crore, a rise of nearly 18% from last year’s ₹1,853 crore.