Bhubaneswar: The Congress on Thursday slammed the AIIMS authorities for turning a blind eye on poor patients from the state despite the state providing support in setting up the facility.

Congress chief whip Tara Prasad Bahinipati told the Assembly: "The state has provided land, water, electricity and other required infrastructure to the institute. But when we take poor people from tribal-dominated Koraput district for admission, they (AIIMS authorities) bluntly refuse to admit them. If the AIIMS authorities have such an attitude, why should we cooperate with them?"

Other Congress MLAs also expressed concern over the issue.

Bahinipati was only echoing the sentiment that relatives of patients have come to express over the lack of beds at the health care institute. The Telegraph spoke to a man whose father is undergoing treatment at the institute and is in critical condition. "Last month, after the Capital Hospital authorities asked me to take him away, I came to AIIMS as I had no money to admit him in private hospitals. They refused to admit him. I finally managed to get him admitted in the casualty ward only after the intervention of higher authorities," he said.

Others were, however, not so fortunate. "I had to stand in queue for hours from early in the morning just to get a health check-up done," said Harihar Swain.

The AIIMS authorities plan to add 400 beds and 15 state-of-the-art modular operation theatres for its indoor departments to supplement the 450 beds. "Procurement of beds and infrastructure development is going on. We have extended our deadline from March to July," said a senior AIIMS official.

Health minister Pratap Jena said: "State-run hospitals admit anyone who comes for treatment. AIIMS, however, admits patients only according to the availability of beds."

"AIIMS is the pride of the state. The government is in touch with the AIIMS authorities and has assured that it would provide all infrastructure support," he said.

To increase manpower at AIIMS, he said: "Sanction has been issued to fill up posts for 305 lectures, 327 senior residents and 301 junior residents. Of this, 176 lectures, 137 senior residents and 99 junior resident posts have been fulfilled. Similarly, out of 3,126 non-teaching posts, 903 have been filled. The recruitment for 1,212 posts in Group-B have reached the final stages. Once all these posts are filled up, services will improve. However, the government has no information on patients being turned away at AIIMS."