Uttar Pradesh is set to begin 13 new government medical colleges this year as the state will begin the new academic session from this year itself. This initiative from the government will increase the MBBS seats in the state.
In an interview to the career360, Alok Kumar (Principal secretary in UP Government) said that the construction of these institutes is complete and the government is recruiting faculties and staff. He further said that Principals have also been appointed to these medical institutions.
The colleges have also been applied for the National Medical Commission's (NMC's) permission. As per the IAS officer, the NMC inspectors will come between June and July 2023 for assessment to provide permission to run the MBBS courses.
Uttar Pradesh has 75 districts but only 65 medical colleges, 35 government and 30 private across 59 districts. Kumar said that there are 16 districts with no medical college and districts like Lucknow have over six colleges.
During the interview, he said, "One of the priorities of the Uttar Pradesh (UP) government is to have at least one medical college in each district. We have a public-private-partnership (PPP) policy for establishing medical colleges in under-served areas where the government is giving subsidies to private sector operators to set up medical colleges."
"We have found four private entities who are going to develop medical colleges. Their functioning will depend upon the pace of their construction. Six private sector operators are under bidding process for establishing medical colleges. For the remaining six districts, we are asking for an in-principle approval of the Government of India (GoI) which is likely to come within six months," added PS Alok Kumar.
According to him all districts of Uttar Pradesh will be covered by at least one medical college by the end of 2027.
Earlier in April this year, Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi gave approval to establishment of 157 new nursing colleges in co-location with the existing medical colleges established since 2014. The step aims to add approximately 15,700 nursing graduates every year.
