Accord ‘Institute of National Importance’ status to SVIMS: MP Gurumoorthy

Tirupati : Tirupati MP Dr M Gurumoorthy appealed to the Central government to accord ‘Institute of National Importance’ (INI) status to SVIMS University in Tirupati. Speaking on the health budget in the Lok Sabha on Friday, the MP underlined the importance of SVIMS, which started its services in 1993 and has established itself as an apex service provider over the period of 30 years.

Approximately 95 per cent of its patients come from low socio-economic backgrounds. The AP government has already sent proposals to the Union Ministry in August 2023 for INI status to SVIMS University. If INI status is given to SVIMS University, with Central Government Aid, the institute can extend its advanced health care services for patients of low socio-economic backgrounds in the underdeveloped Rayalaseema region, southern coastal districts of the AP State and for patients from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

The MP also urged the Union government to grant National Cancer Institute status to Sri Balaji Institute of Oncology (SBIO) of SVIMS, which has been providing cancer services for the past two decades. Recently the cancer department has been upgraded as a dedicated cancer centre with the name SBIO. In support of his demand, Gurumoorthy mentioned that in the year 2020, approximately 8.5 lakh deaths were recorded due to Breast cancer, Cervical, Oral cavity and Lung cancer and the rate of death due to cancer is increasing drastically in India.

While not all people have access to cancer screening, in Tirupati Parliament segment with the collaboration of SVIMS the government has started two mobile cancer screening units in February 2024 and screened 60000 people so far. Among them, 850 cases were identified as positive and referred to the cancer centre. He stated that there is a need to allocate sufficient resources to initiate mobile cancer screening and immunizing units for cancer screening.

MP Gurumoorthy also mentioned that AIIMS Mangalagiri is a premier medical Institution in AP and yet it remains starved of essential funds needed for the maintenance and expansion of existing facilities. The lack of sufficient funding hampers the Institution’s ability to attract top-tier medical professionals and researchers.

He also made a remark on the reduction of allocation for Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) in the 2024-25 Budget is a significant concern. From Rs.7517 crore in 2022-23 Actuals, the budgetary allocation this year is only Rs.2200 crore. The reduction in support from Gross Budgetary Support (GBS) compared to 2023-24 threatens to undermine the programme’s primary objective of correcting regional imbalances in tertiary healthcare services and Medical Education.