Gujarat to get 8 medical colleges in two years

Gujarat to get 8 medical colleges in two years

Move Will Add 1,200 MBBS Seats

Bharat.Yagnik@timesgroup.com

Ahmedabad:27.10.2021

Gujarat government is planning to set up eight new medical colleges in the state in the next two years. They will add 1,200 MBBS seats, representing about 21% of the total number of prevailing seats in Gujarat, said sources in the state’s health department.

Presently, there are about 30 colleges in the state with 5,508 seats for which the Admission Committee for Professional Under Graduate Medical Educational Courses (ACPUGMEC) carries out the admission process. There are another 300 seats in the state under two deemed universities for which the admission is carried out at the college level. ACPUGMEC is not involved in this.

“The new medical colleges in Morbi, Godhra and Porbandar are expected to start in 2021-22. The inspection process by National Medical Commission (NMC) has been completed. The new medical colleges will add about 150 seats each,” said an official in the health department.

The state health department aims to start new medical colleges in Rajpipla, Navsari, Jam Khambhaliya, Botad and Veraval in the next academic year, he added.

State health minister Rushikesh Patel did not respond to calls and messages on his phone.

Gujarat government is working on a plan to ensure that there is one medical college in every district of the state. For this, the department will have to set up about seven additional medical colleges in districts that do not have a single college, said sources.

The proposal is in line with the Centre’s vision to have one college in every district of the country in the next 5 years.

The Centre has given nod to 157 new medical colleges in India since 2014 and has invested Rs 17,691.08 crore on these projects, the Union health ministry said recently.

On completion, nearly 16,000 under graduate medical seats would be added, it said. Of these, 6,500 seats have already been created with the functioning of 64 new medical colleges, said the government.

NMC, under the ministry of health and family welfare, is working on a plan to increase the total number of under graduate medical seats from about 82,500 to 1 lakh seats by next year , said sources. There are close to 550 medical colleges in the country offering MBBS courses of which 49% are government run and remaining are selffinanced and on public-private-partnership basis.