Maharshtra: Special Officer appointed for proposed PG Medical Institute

PIMPRI CHINCHWAD :An officer on special duty has been appointed for the proposed post graduate medical institute at Pimpri Chinchwad’s Municipal Corporation-run Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital (YCMH).

According to Officer of Health, Pimpri, Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), Padmakar Pandit, Professor in Pharmacology at BJ Medical Medical College, Pune has been selected for the post.

Municipal Commissioner, Dinesh Waghmare, highlighting the role of the special officer said his job would entail obtaining permissions from different authorities to start the institute.

"PCMC will be recruiting doctors as faculty for the institute on contract basis after the end of the election code of conduct. After obtaining the permission to start the institute, PCMC will recruit the faculty on a permanent basis," he added.

Despite having obtained permits and approvals to start the institute, the civic body had in an earlier attempt to set the ball rolling in the absence of an exemption certificate under section 8(1A) of Medical Council of India, Post Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2000, from the Union Health Ministry.

A 650 bedded facility, YCMH is the largest multi specialty hospital run by the civic body within the municipal limits. The drawback of the facility being its patient staff ratio, and shortage of doctors.

In 2012, there had been a suggestion to start a post graduate medical college, by the former Municipal Commissioner Shrikar Pardeshi. This endeavour was to be undertaken jointly with the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences(MUHS), Nashik at YCMH.