Five govt-run medical colleges to be made operational in 2019
Kolkata: Five government-run medical colleges will be made operational in the state early next year creating new opportunity for medical aspirants in the state.
A senior official of the state Health department said a total of 500 undergraduate medical seats will be created in the five medical colleges which have come up at Diamond Harbour, Purulia, Rampurhat, Raigunj and Cooch Behar. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced the project of setting up five new medical colleges in 2016.
According to an official, all the necessary infrastructure is in place and the medical colleges are ready to be operated.
A team from the Medical Council of India (MCI) has recently visited the hospitals to assess whether they had adequate pre-requisite infrastructure. Each medical college will have a capacity of 300-500 beds, said the official.
The state Health department is hopeful that after going through the necessary parameters, the MCI — the highest regulating body will provide clearance to start these medical colleges.
If everything goes as per plan, the MBBS students can be admitted to these medical colleges from the next academic year.
According to sources in the Health department, tenders would soon be floated to construct four other medical colleges at Jhargram, Tomluk (East Midnapore), Barasat (North 24-Parganas) and Arambag (Hooghly). The construction works may begin from next year.
It may be mentioned that after coming to power, Chief Minister Banerjee laid emphasis not only on the health infrastructure but also on medical education. Chief Minister felt the need of the setting up new medical colleges and up-gradation of some existing district of sub-divisional hospitals.
Following the instruction of the Chief Minister, the state Health department has already set up more than 40 Superspecialty hospitals across the state so that people in the districts can avail best quality treatment, particularly in the rural areas.
Banerjee also laid an emphasis on how medical seats at both undergraduate and post graduate level could be increased. The state government was in a dire need of creating new medical seats to deal with the scarcity of medical officers, nurses and paramedical staff in various state-run hospitals in the state.
"All this is being done to increase manpower and availability of doctors in government hospitals and to ensure that people can avail best treatment in the districts as well. There has been a paradigm shift in the health infrastructure in the state in past few years", a senior official of the state Health department said.
