Governor SC Jamir at AIIMS Bhubaneswar on Monday. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, July 15: The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) today started blood transfusion facility for cancer patients on the occasion of its first foundation day here.

“We have kept a temporary blood storage device which can supply blood units to day care patients in emergency cases. Though the facility is purely temporary, we would also take blood units from the blood bank in Capital Hospital,” said a senior official of AIIMS, Bhubaneswar.

Director of the institute Ashok Kumar Mahapatra said: “We will have a 70-bed hospital service in another two months. At present, we have 10 beds for the day care facilities.”

Apart from a plantation drive on the campus to mark the occasion, a blood donation camp was also organised today, in which 57 blood units were collected.

A scientific session was also held in which a number of eminent doctors across the country took part.

Governor S.C. Jamir, who was also present during the event, said that the institute would go a long way in reducing maternal mortality and infant mortality rates in the state.

“Odisha requires state-of-the-art health care facilities in the field of specialty and super specialty disciplines. The AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, was conceived and supposed to provide state of the art health care services in all possible fields of medicine at tertiary level,” said Jamir.

Though the foundation stone of AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, was laid in 2003, it started functioning only last year.

The institution had already started out patient departments along with a number of specialty clinics for high-risk pregnancy, paediatric nephrology, pain, sleep, infertility, hydrocephalus, cerebral palsy, head and neck oncology and orthodontics.

The counselling for second batch of students of MBBS has already commenced and the classes will commence from September 2.