Minister, Health promises 13 new medical colleges to Bihar

Patna: 13 new medical colleges were announced in the state by Health Minister, Mangal Pandey recently, in order to take the toll of the total number of medical colleges to 26. The 13 new medical colleges are to be made functional in the coming 4 years.

Five new medical colleges would be opened under the Chief Minister's seven resolve. Two in Madhubani, Sitamarhi, with central government aid; while in Vaishali, Bhojpur and Begusarai the state would fund the facilities.

The 13 ongoing ones including AIIMS-Patna and IGIMS, three are private institutions and eight run with government aid.

Pandey said: "New medical colleges would be opened in Purnea, Chhapra, Samastipur, Vaishali, Begusarai, Siwan, Buxar, Jamui and Madhepura. A private medical college would also be started in Madhubani by the end of 2018, taking the total number of medical colleges to 26 in Bihar."

The decision comes in the wake of the state health services being ravaged by lack of infrastructure and adequate manpower as revealed by the annual health index report 2017, released by the NITI Ayog,

Bihar along with Odisha and Rajasthan reflect as poor performers in this index. The indicators for the index include immunisation coverage, maternal mortality ratio, healthcare facilities and sex ratio among others. The report compares benchmark data for the year 2014-15 with 2015-16.

The Minister also highlighted the maternal mortality rate as reduced. 165 in 2017, it was 208 in the earlier year. "It is a laudable achievement and the department would try to curb the MMR up to 100 in the coming years," the Minister stated.

Speaking about the condition of the existing medical colleges run by the state, Pandey told media reporters: "The row over cancellation of 250 seats has ended as the Medical Council of India has issued a letter of permission to the three medical colleges which were cancelled. The state government is committed towards the revamp of the existing medical colleges run by the Bihar government. We have initiated steps for their turnaround. The improvement will be visible in the near future as it would be done in a phased manner."

"Bihar has achieved 84 per cent immunisation coverage in 2017, while the target is 90 per cent till the end of 2018. As far as Mission Indradhanush programme is concerned, the department is implementing it effectively," he added on immunization to the Telegraph.