RAMANATHAPURAM
A. Edwin Joe, Director of Medical Education (DME), has said the State government could start only one medical college in a district in a year as per a policy decision due to shortage of experienced faculty members, and the Nilgiris and Ramanathapuram topped the list for establishing a new medical college next year.
Talking to reporters on Saturday, Dr. Joe, who was here to inaugurate a Skill Lab at the School of Nursing at Ramanathapuram Government Headquarters Hospital, said the Directorate of Medical Education considered the two districts for establishing a medical college last year, but later selected Karur as per government orders.
The new Government Medical College and Hospital in Karur would start functioning this academic year, he said. The government had realised the importance of starting a medical college in the Nilgiris and Ramanathapuram, especially in the Nilgiris, from where people were brought to the plains for emergency and tertiary medical care. The difference in temperature sometimes proved fatal to patients from hill areas, he said.
Apart from getting land and infrastructure ready, the DME faced problems in providing experienced faculty members to new medical colleges, he said.
In the districts where new medical colleges could not be started, the government was upgrading district headquarters hospitals to the status of medical college, he added.
Dr. Joe said the government was also striving to get at least 100 additional seats in the existing medical colleges every year with the consent of Medical Council of India. Last year, it had secured 350 additional seats.
Presently, 3,300 undergraduate medical seats were available in Tamil Nadu and efforts would be made to get 3,000-odd postgraduate medical seats, he said.
