Govt. wants medical colleges in all districts: Vice President

Venkaiah Naidu bats for public-private partnership to attract talent to the sector

The time has come to open up medical education to the private sector, but with adequate and proper regulation, Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu said on Sunday. He added that the aim of the government was to set up at least one medical college in each district headquarters.

Delivering the 30th convocation address at the Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University here on Sunday, the Vice-President said: “India has 479 medical colleges, out of which 227 are being run by the government and 252 are in private sector with annual admission capacity of 67,532 MBBS and 31,415 post-graduate students per year. Besides, there are 6,848 DNB seats which are equivalent to MD/MS.”

“However, the essential question that we need to ask ourselves is about the quality of medical education,” he said, adding that there should be public-private partnerships in the field and “we should encourage well-meaning people to get into the educational field and the medical field. At the same time, we must see to it that they maintain standards and follow the ethics.”

“We have a huge population and prevalence of new diseases is also increasing. There is a need for strengthening further the health care system. I am happy that the Prime Minister has decided to open at least one medical college in each district headquarters. That is the aim of the government,” he said. The Vice-President said he was also happy to note that the Tamil Nadu government had approved the setting up of two private universities in the State.

Rural stint for doctors

Mr. Naidu said that a regulation must be brought in to ensure that every doctor served in rural areas for three years before getting his or her first promotion.

“It should be be made mandatory. Otherwise, people in rural areas will be neglected and denied basic facilities,” he said.

He further said that Tamil Nadu was one of the leading States in providing health care to its people.

“The Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University has been a trendsetter in many ways and has successfully started new courses in medicine and allied health science according to the needs of the society and the emerging disease patterns,” he said.

Tamil Nadu was 16 years ahead of the Millennium Development Goals, having achieved a Maternal Mortality Ratio of 62 per 1 lakh births which was well below the target of 70 per lakh set by United Nations to be achieved by 2030, State Health Minister C. Vijaya Baskar said.