The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Bhubaneswar, plans to launch a 500-bed Dharamshala (homestay) for patients and introduce a raft of measures to improve its health service network across the state, director Dr Gitanjali Batmanabane said on the eighth foundation day of the institute on Wednesday.

The foundation day was celebrated online amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to the announcement, the homestay is being built by Nalco under its corporate social responsibility (CSR) scheme.

The burn unit, which is being constructed at a cost of Rs 14 crore under the CSR scheme of NTPC, is also set to become functional by next year.

The institute announced that a level-1 trauma wing, built by Petronet, and 10 modular operation theatres, endoscopy suite, Gamma Knife, PET-CT scan would also be made operational.

Before the pandemic, the hospital used to treat around 4,200 patients at the OPD every day besides recording around 90 per cent bed occupancy and conducting more than 800 major surgeries every month.

Despite the pandemic and restrictions on the movement of people, the institute had treated nearly 90,000 OPD patients and performed 3,800 surgeries before the closure of its OPD services recently.

The foundation stone of AIIMS Bhubaneswar was laid by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on July 15, 2003.

The institute began functioning in 2012 with 50 students in the MBBS course. Since then, it has made significant progress on the academic front during its eight-year journey.

More than 1,200 students are currently pursuing different academic courses at the institute.