New Delhi: Union health minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya, on February 19, said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would inaugurate “a new All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) in Jammu.” A press release confirmed that the PM did that on February 20. Additionally, news agency PTI reported quoting the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said that the PM will also inaugurate AIIMS in Rajkot, Mangalagiri, Bathinda, Raebareli and Kalyani next week.The “inauguration” is designed to project an impression of a new AIIMS. Inauguration sprees have been common by governments before, in the run-up to polls expected to be announced in a few weeks. But interestingly, all five AIIMS which are set to be inaugurated, are not new and have been functional, for some time now, even if partially. Some, like the AIIMS Mangalagiri in Andhra Pradesh, has been functional since 2018.As per AIIMS Kalyani’s official website, the West Bengal-based institute “started its first academic session from September 04, 2019, with a batch of 50 MBBS students.” The website also shows that the hospital currently has as many as 39 functioning departments. AIIMS in Raebareli got its first Out Patient Department (OPD) in 2018. It began its first academic session in 2019. AIIMS Mangalagiri became operational in 2018 with a temporary campus in Vijayawada, but then started operating from its main campus in 2019. The official website of AIIMS Mangalagiri states, “In March 2019 OPD services was started in the Permanent campus at Mangalagiri, Guntur. Thereafter AIIMS gradually moved into its designated campus as newly constructed.”AIIMS Bhatinda’s official website shows that it currently has 39 functioning departments. AIIMS in Rajkot also began its first academic session in 2020, as per its official website. Despite all these five AIIMS being functional for at least two years, the Prime Minister is set to inaugurate these institutes under ‘Ayushman Bharat, Viksit Bharat’. Muddy AIIMS pictureThe Wire’s Banjot Kaur has reported earlier on the state of partially functional AIIMS being earlier declared as having been completed. But the truth conceals a situation where, at least till last year, nine years after the Modi government took office, and 22 AIIMS (as opposed to 7 earlier) decreed as being set up, none were fully functional. According to the reply given by health minister Mandaviya in the Lok Sabha on February 3, 2023, the 16 AIIMS-like institutions are under ‘various stages of operationalisation’ and only limited OPD and in-patient department (IPD) services are available.Some of these 16 AIIMS-like institutions were announced in 2014 itself, for example, AIIMS Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh), AIIMS Mangalagiri (Andhra Pradesh), AIIMS Nagpur (Maharashtra) and AIIMS Kalyani (West Bengal). Yet, all of these institutions are offering only limited OPD and IPD services and do not figure in the ‘fully functional’ list.Multiple ‘inaugurations’A simple Google search shows how all of these AIIMS now being inaugurated, have had inauguration ceremonies in the presence of the then Union health ministers.For example, one PIB press release reports about Dr. Harsh Vardhan, the then Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare inaugurating 11 OPD centres at AIIMS Bhatinda. Similarly, Dr Harsh Vardhan inaugurated the first session of MBBS at AIIMS Rajkot on December 20, 2020. Then CM Vijay Rupani was also present during the virtual inauguration. The AIIMS Mangalagiri in Andhra Pradesh, which will be inaugurated by the PM, declared in April 2023 that it surpassed 10 lakh outpatient consultations. Health minister Mansukh Mandaviya at AIIMS Raebareli. Photo: XAIIMS Raebareli which is functional since 2018 got its Emergency department in July 2023. Health minister Mandaviya inaugurated that centre.