Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare J P Nadda has said that government has given high priority for improving the Nursing and Midwifery cadre through skill development and continued professional development. Speaking at the 1st convocation ceremony of National Institute of Nursing Education at PGI Chandigarh, he said that the government have undertaken major expansion of nursing and technical education leading to a three-fold increase in the numbers of nursing institutions and in the number of students passing out of these institutions. <br/><br/>Health Minister today dedicated two AMRIT (Affordable Medicines and Reliable Implants) outlets at PGI Chandigarh – One in Nehru Hospital for providing generic medicines and orthopedic surgical implants and another in the Advanced Cardiac Centre (ACC) for providing affordable cardio vascular medicines and implants making total number of such outlets three at PGI. <br/><br/>The Health Minister also inaugurated SLEEP LAB in the Department of ENT for the diagnosis and surgical treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). This Lab is the first to be started in ENT Department of North India. This Lab is designed to evaluate, diagnose, treat and help patients to manage OSA.<br/><br/>One of the major breakthroughs achieved by the PGI today is in the form of Telemedicine facility with three remote locations, namely Community Health Centre in Kinnour district of Himachal Pradesh; Pampa Hospital, Sabrimala in Kerala and Sheshnag base camp on way to Amarnath Shrine. <br/><br/>Minister told that these three telemedicine nodes in remote areas have been established by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in collaboration with Department of Space.