State hastens to set up Ambarnath Medical College despite meagre faculty and infrastructure

The college building and 430-bed superspeciality hospital near Lok Nagari in Ambarnath was to be built on 11 hectares of land on a budgetary allocation of ₹403 crore

MUMBAI: Last year, the Maharashtra government’s medical education department sanctioned a medical college in Ambarnath but failed to get approval from the National Medical Council (NMC) on account of its lacking basic infrastructure and faculty. Undeterred, it has found another roundabout route.

The buildings that the government plans to rent for hostels are in a dilapidated state (L), while the four hospitals that will be attached with the college don’t have adequate teaching staff and infrastructure. (Pramod Tambe /HT Photo)

The college building and 430-bed superspeciality hospital near Lok Nagari in Ambarnath was to be built on 11 hectares of land on a budgetary allocation of ₹403 crore. But since the construction could take several years and the government is in a hurry to start admissions, the state medical education department has decided to rent 10 unused buildings and use them as hostels.

The unsold buildings were constructed in 2017 as part of a low-cost government housing scheme called Basic Services for Urban Poor (BSUP). When an HT team visited, it found the buildings in a dilapidated state. Many were leaking, with snapped electrical connections and broken window panes situated in a plot full of overgrown grass. The minimum fare by rickshaw from Badlapur railway station is ₹60.

National Medical Council rules mandate that every medical college is attached to a hospital. Since the Ambarnath college has no hospital attached, the medical education department has plans to attach four hospitals—the 30-bed Badlapur Medical Centre to be upgraded to 50 beds, Ambarnath Rural Hospital and Ulhasnagar Government Hospitals 3 and 4. However, all these hospitals with bare minimum facilities are in different suburbs, at a great distance from the hostel and one another.

“As per NMC rules, a hospital attached to a medical college needs to be in a radius of two kilometres,” said a former medical education secretary. “In this case, all the hospitals are far away. Every medical college needs teaching staff, patients and students. There is not enough teaching staff and there is no basic infrastructure in place. In this case, it appears that the hostel too is very far away.”

Dr Santosh Varma, the dean of Ambernath Medical College, admitted that all the four hospitals would require an overhaul. At present, there are no laboratories, lecture halls and classrooms and no instruments have been purchased. “We had applied to start an MBBS course with 100 seats on September 15, 2023. “We are now in the final stages. There are some deficiencies. Some can be rectified.” Sources said that despite the problems, interviews were being conducted to induct staff, and the state had decided to admit 100 students in the first batch.

Dinesh Waghmare, principal secretary of the medical education department, said that the NMC refused permission last year, as the college did not have enough infrastructure and basic faculty. “But we are trying again,” he said. “We have also written a letter to the union labour department to give the college an ESIS building which is coming up in Ulhasnagar, so that a lot of the lectures can be held under one roof.” However, the medical education department is yet to respond, and there is still no clarity on where the lectures will be held.

The BJP’s Balaji Kinikar, who is the MLA of Ambarnath, defended the decision, saying that all medical colleges in the state had taken over government hospitals first and set up their own infrastructure later. Indeed, in some cases like Alibag Medical College, the medical education department did take over the Alibag district civil hospital as a stop-gap measure. However, in the Ambarnath case, the four hospitals sought to be attached are very basic in infrastructure.

Kinikar said the chief officer of Badlapur had given the 10 BSUP buildings “since no one was using them”. “The National Medical Council will give clearance soon,” he claimed. “Our idea is that all must get medical aid. The medical education department will construct its Ambernath Medical College buildings soon.”