AIIMS Guwahati celebrated its 1st Institute day with a day-long celebrations. . Dr. Subhash Khanna, the Chief Medical Director of Swagat Hospitals and a renowned Laparoscopic Robotic Surgeon from Eastern India, delivered the keynote address at the event, wherein he spoke extensively on his journey as a small-town surgeon and the developing healthcare sector of the state. He talked about bringing healing technologies to the doorstep of the people of Assam and the Northeastern region of the country so that people from this region do not have to travel to other states for health care services.
The former professor of surgery at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital expressed his joy in seeing a premier medical facility as AIIMS being established in the state of Assam as the development of health care facilities and infrastructure in the region and contributing towards the same have always been a dream and goal for Dr. Khanna. Dr. Khanna spoke about his journey of failures and successes and the hurdles one faces to bring technology to smaller states and cities away from the metropolitan. In his early career, he was distressed to see the lack of advanced surgical care facilities in Assam and its neighboring states. After starting the first end laparoscopic Centre in the region in the year 2000, he vowed to make a center of excellence for diverse Surgical and medical disorders so that the poor and affluent need not go to faraway places in search of better facilities and medical technology.
Dr. Khanna believes the establishment of AIIMS in the state of Assam is a massive step toward the service to the people of this region of the country in the healthcare sector that he aspires the area to achieve. He praised the Govt of Assam and the Prime Minister and the then Health Minister, Dr. Harshvardhan, for taking a personal interest and starting the Institute on this day.
Dr. Khanna expressed his happiness as most of the faculty at AIIMS were his past students. The meeting was presided over by the Executive Director of the AIIMS, Dr. Ashok Puranik, and the chief guest of the meeting was Prof Gitanjali the first Director of AIIMS, Guwahati who delivered the first AIIMS Oration. She spoke on various aspects of the process of development of an institute of such magnitude. Different merit and other awards were presented to deserving students of the institute at the event.
