Cabinet Approves Establishment of 24 New Medical Colleges

New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved schemes worth about Rs 14,930 crore to boost the availability of human resources for health and medical sector, including the establishment of 24 new medical colleges in unreserved areas.

Other than the new colleges, 18,058 undergraduate and postgraduate seats will be increased in medical colleges by 2020-21, according to an official statement. The government also plans to set up 248 nursing and midwifery schools.

The establishment of 24 new medical colleges attached with existing district/referral hospitals will take place by 2021-22.

The establishment of the new colleges and increase of MBBS and PG seats would increase the availability of health professionals, check the existing geographical distribution of medical colleges in the country.

It will promote affordable medical education in the country, utilise the existing infrastructure of district hospitals and improve tertiary care in the government sector, the statement said.

It has been planned to ensure at least one medical college for every 3-5 parliamentary constituencies and at least one government medical colleges in the state. The location of new medical colleges will be selected by the state government within the identified blocks in a "challenge mode", it said.

The scheme will serve to create additional 10,000 MBBS and 8,000 PG seats in the country, bridge the gap in number of seats available in government and private sector, mitigate the shortage of doctors and medical faculty in India by increasing the number of seats and to achieve the desired doctor-population ratio, upgrade PG teaching facilities in government medical colleges.