To Increase Access to Medical Education & Care, Govt to Allow Setting Up of Colleges in Small Hospitals

To improve access to medical care in remote areas, the central government may soon allow medical faculties to open in small hospitals, News18 has learned.

Currently, only large county hospitals are being used to set up medical colleges, but the National Medical Commission (NMC) has begun working on a plan to facilitate the process, News18 reported on May 19.

NMC discussed the infrastructure requirements in these hospitals with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, which approved the proposal.

The draft is in the final stages of fine-tuning, and an announcement is likely to take place this month.

So far, small hospitals have not been used to impart medical education. NMC used only 20% of the beds for student education, while 80% remained unused,” a senior government official from the ministry told News18.com.

The official added that the aim of the move is to “increase access to medical care” in remote areas as well as “increase seats for medical education.”

The official added that the central government’s idea is to distribute medical education and students across the majority of provinces.

“India will be able to better provide high-quality care even in remote areas. We have taken into account the infrastructural requirements to open these colleges. A list of requirements such as CT scan machines, microscopic equipment and a variety of surgical equipment has been made. something”.

The official also indicated that the Ministry of Health is already on the way to add more seats to expand the scope of medical education.

Nearly 50 new medical schools have been approved this year, adding an additional 8,195 undergraduate seats and bringing the total number of such seats in the country to more than 1,07,658.

With the addition of these 50 colleges (30 public and 20 private), the number of medical schools in the country now stands at 702.