Government of India has approved establishment of two National Centres of Ageing one each at:
- All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi,
- Madras Medical College, Chennai
under the tertiary level component of National Programme for Health Care of the Elderly (NPHCE) during the 12th Five Year Plan Period.
Both the National Centres of Ageing are expected to be Centres of Excellence in the field of Geriatric Care in the country.
The functions of the National Centres will be (i) Health care delivery; (ii) Training of health professionals; (iii) Research activities along with 200 bedded in-patient services.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between AIIMS, New Delhi and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
These National Centre for Ageing will be specialised centres of excellence for geriatric care. They will develop manuals for home care and provide training to the specialists and formulate protocols in areas of elderly care.
A need was felt for setting up these centres as there is no specialisation in geriatric medicines (in the country). These institutes will also involve in developing enhanced evidence of elderly through research in geriatrics and gerontology.
The two centres would have 200 beds and also have 15 seats for post-graduate course in geriatric medicine.
The objective is to upscale the health-care activities at tertiary level so that specialised health-care can be given to the elderly as they suffer from higher prevalence of disease burden including multiple chronic disease with disability and other mental health problems.
