58 medical colleges soon

Concerned over the fact that some of the most densely populated as well as geographically large states in the country have a grave paucity of medical seats owing to inadequate number of colleges there, the Centre plans to add around 58 new government medical colleges in the next two years. Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Orissa and Bihar are some of the states which would be getting the bulk of the new medical colleges.

According to highly-placed sources, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has directed the Niti Aayog and the Union health ministry to work out the modalities of ensuring greater availability of doctors in densely populated states which have lesser doctor-to-patient ratio. To achieve this objective, the government, apart from adding 58 new medical colleges, also plans to set up 82 such colleges through public-private partnership (PPP) route in the next three years.

Also, all AIIMS-like institutions which have been announced in previous Budget speeches will be expedited, sources said. Just sample this, a densely-populated and large state like Uttar Pradesh has only 36 government medical colleges. Similarly, other large states, like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, have only 12, 14 and six government medical colleges, respectively.

Even small states like Punjab and Telangana have a comparatively greater number of government medical colleges. While Punjab has 10, Telangana has 20 such colleges. Also, compared to northern states, southern states have large number of government medical colleges. Karnataka leads the pack with 50 colleges, Kerala has 30, Tamil Nadu has 45 while Andhra Pradesh has 28 colleges. Maharashtra in western India has 48 medical colleges.

In another significant move, the government is also mulling the option of giving greater recognition to the diploma in national board (DNB), which though considered equal to an MD or MS degree, but is not accepted by the Medical Council of India.

Sources privy to the development told this newspaper that the PMO has also asked Niti Aayog and health ministry to look at the possibilities of amending the Indian Medical Council Act of 1956, for giving recognition to DNB.

By doing so, the government wants to ensure that greater number of highly qualified doctors are available to as many people as possible. Also, it will widen the ambit of those pursuing post-graduate studies in medical science as not all medical colleges offer post-graduate courses.

The Centre is also working on a proposal to allow students of private colleges to practice in their neighbouring government district hospitals.