West Bengal to get additional 700 MBBS seats with 7 new medical colleges

Kolkata: The setting up of seven more medical colleges in the state will lead to an addition of 700 MBBS Medical seats in the various medical colleges. Chandrima Bhattacharya, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare while proposing the budget of the department in the state Assembly revealed.

"The state government has taken steps to set up seven more medical colleges. The construction work of five colleges is going on in full swing while the work of two others will begin soon," she stated. She further said setting up of the medical colleges will ensure the creation of 700 more MBBS seats at government hospitals.

The five medical colleges under-construction are coming up in Cooch Behar, Purulia and Diamond Harbour, Raiganj, Rampurhat. The work of two others to start soon will be set up in Jalpaiguri and Arambagh.

According to her since 2011 state-run medical colleges have increased to 14. According to her 39 of the proposed 42 super-speciality hospitals are already functioning and have been a great boon to the rural parts of the state

"Moreover, as many as 17,925 doctors have been recruited in the past six years," the Minister told Millenium Post. Bhattacharya criticised the Congress MLA’s walk out of the Assembly when she was about to discuss the health budget. Speaker Biman Banerjee described it as discourtesy shown when the minister of state was replying to issues raised during the discussions on the health budget.

Bhattacharya further informed the House that the planned budget for health had been raised to Rs 8,773.52 crore in 2018-19; the earlier being -Rs 7,603.82 crore for the 2017-18 fiscal.