Hero Image

Tamil Nadu may get six new medical colleges by 2020

CHENNAI: The technical committee of the Medical Council of India has cleared the decks for six new government medical colleges in the state. If empowered committee of council gives the final nod, the state will be able to add at least 900 MBBS seats into its matrix for admissions in 2020, health minister C Vijayabaskar said. This will take the total number of seats in government colleges to 4,150.


On Friday, the state health department issued orders for allotment of land to colleges in Ramanathapuram, Virudhunagar, Nilgiris, Dindigul, Tirupur and Namakkal. “We have also started the process for the appointment of doctors, nurses, paramedical and administrative staff, and purchase of equipment. Our officials have made the best presentations to ensure we get approvals from the Centre for all six colleges,” he said.

Health secretary Beela Rajesh had to justify the need for medical colleges in each location. For instance, Tamil Nadu had to convince the board that they needed a college in Nilgiris, despite being close to Coimbatore, because the time taken to travel from the hill to the nearest tertiary care centre can take upto four hours.

In August, the cabinet committee on economic affairs had approved setting up of 75 government medical colleges by 2021-22. Tamil Nadu, which has 23 medical colleges, proposed medical colleges in the six unserved areas. In September, Vijayabaskar presented the proposal to Union health minister Harsh Vardhan and told him that the state has made all arrangements, including identification of land, for the medical colleges. For instance, the administrative building of the Hindustan Photo Films in Ooty, land in the collectorate complex in Virudhunagar, space around existing government hospital in Tirupur have been earmarked for the new colleges.

The state has 23 colleges and runs three Category B institutions – Raja Muthiah Medical College, ESIC Medical College, KK Nagar and IRT Medical College, Perundurai. There are 3,250 seats in 23 colleges and 350 seats in Category B institutions.

The state had made a policy decision to increase the number of medical colleges or add seats to existing colleges every year.

Proposals for new medical colleges are pending in Perambalur and pressure has been building for new colleges in Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram.

“The state will have to recruit at least 600 more doctors, 300 staff nurses, paramedics and administrative staff and begin construction if we have to start admissions next year,” said a senior official.

READ ON APP