Jolted into action by the COVID-19 pandemic, the state government is working on reviving the long-pending proposal for launching nine new government-run medical colleges in Maharashtra. Put together, these new medical colleges will add more undergraduate seats to the pool of government and civic-run institutions, increasing its capacity by around a fourth.
These colleges, which have been proposed at Raigad, Satara, Gadchiroli, Buldhana, Amravati, Nandurbar, Osmanabad, and Parbhani, will also make tertiary treatment facilities available for patients.
Dr T.P Lahane, director, medical education and research (DMER), confirmed the proposal and added that each college will have 100 seats for the MBBS course. These will be started in the civil hospitals in the district.
Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has also announced a medical college at Sindhudurg.
At present, the 24 government and civic-run medical colleges in Maharashtra have 4,080 MBBS seats. It also has 2,120 seats for the course in 17 private and minority colleges.
These proposals have been pending for over a decade. For instance, the plan for the Raigad and Nandurbar medical colleges was floated in 2009. Approvals were granted for seven new government medical colleges at Satara, Nandurbar, Alibag, Mumbai, Baramati, Gondia and Chandrapur in 2012.
Between 2014 to 2019, the Chandrapur, Gondia, Jalgaon and Baramati medical colleges, were operationalised. DMER sources said the college at tribal-dominated Nandurbar is expected to function from this academic year.
Sources said some proposals, including that for a medical college in Mumbai’s suburbs, were languishing due to lack of abiding political interest. The state had identified a 25-acre plot at Gorai for the institution.
“The problem lies in the poor investment in medical education and public health. A medical college will need an investment of Rs 500 crore for three years, apart from the buildings and staff of the civil hospitals,” the source noted. For an intake of 100 students at the undergraduate level, the medical college needs a hospital with a minimum bed strength of 500.
In 2016, a state government-appointed committee had suggested to convert its district hospitals into medical colleges through private-public partnership (PPP) with parties like societies, trusts or not for profit companies.
In return, the state government would get a quota of 25% seats in these medical colleges for admission at nominal fees and an equal number of patients in the affiliated hospital will be treated free of cost under various government schemes. To cross-subsidise these government medical college seats, the private party will be earmarked 15% of the annual intake of students as an NRI quota towards which higher fees will be charged as compensation.
However, this scheme turned out to be a non-starter.
