E-Paper
Punjab’s plan to set up 2 new medical colleges likely to get delayed
Confirming the development, Punjab medical education minister Dr Balbir Singh, while talking to the HT, said after missing the deadline to apply this year, they would try to complete all the mandatory requirements to open new medical colleges in Hoshiarpur and Kapurthala in the first phase before the last date of applying the next year.
Punjab government’s plan of much-needed new medical colleges may not be functional before March 2025 as the final date to apply for the new medical colleges for next year’s batch has been missed by the state. The due date to apply was October 20.
The Punjab government will have to wait for a year to apply for new medical colleges. As of now, there are only 10 medical colleges. However, there are only four in the government sector.
Confirming the development, Punjab medical education minister Dr Balbir Singh, while talking to the HT, said after missing the deadline to apply this year, they would try to complete all the mandatory requirements to open new medical colleges in Hoshiarpur and Kapurthala in the first phase before the last date of applying the next year.
He added that they were on the job to upgrade government hospitals in these two districts so as to fulfil the requirements of the National Medical Commission (NMC) to open new colleges.
“We have already floated tenders to upgrade government hospitals as per the requirements — that of the NMC — of a minimum 420 beds to open a new medical college having 100 MBBS seats,” Dr Balbir said.
He said they would try to fulfil the requirement as soon as possible to apply for mandatory inspections by the NMC before granting the approval to open a new medical college.
The Punjab medical education department will have to fulfil a long list of requirements of NMC such as hiring minimum teaching faculty of 85 for 100 MBBS seats before applying for a new medical college.
A senior official of medical education department, who wished not to be named, said, “The first challenge is to complete all the infrastructural requirements which includes labs, OTs, hostels and classrooms. The second big challenge would be hiring teaching faculty. We are already facing 20% faculty shortage in our existing government colleges.”
Though the newly formed government has announced to open 16 medical colleges during their five-year tenure, no new medical college would come up in the first three years.
