Tamil Nadu to get 6 new medical colleges with 900 MBBS seats by 2020

Chennai: The number of government medical colleges in the state of Tamil Nadu is going to increase as the Union Health Minister has approved the proposal to build 6 new medical colleges with 150 MBBS seats each in here.

Once the technical committee of the Medical Council of India (MCI) shows a green flag, a minimum of 900 MBBS seats will be added into the seat matrix for the academic year 2020, confirms Health Minister, C Vijayabaskar.

The 6 new medical colleges will come up in the unserved areas of Ramanathapuram, Virudhunagar, Nilgiris, Dindigul, Tirupur and Namakkal. The Centre has given approval for the new medical colleges under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) scheme.

The approval from the Centre came following a proposal submitted to Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan by his counterpart C Vijayabaskar pointing out the need for Government medical colleges in the unserved parts of the state and how the people have to travel for hours to visit nearest tertiary care centres.

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Vijaybaskar apprised that the state it has made all arrangements, including identification of land, for the medical colleges. The administrative building of the Hindustan Photo Films in Ooty, land in the collectorate complex in Virudhunagar, space around existing government hospital in Tirupur have been maintained for the new medical colleges.

As per a media report by The New Indian Express, the total expenditure for the facilities will be shared by the Centre and the state, wherein, the Centre will sanction 60% of the total expenditure and the state will contribute the remaining 40%.

With the approval, the number of government medical colleges is likely to increase from 24 to 30 while MBBS seats to go up from 3,350 to 4,250. In order to start MBBS admissions from 2020, the state will have to hire at least 600 more doctors, 300 staff nurses, paramedics and administrative staff and begin construction, a senior official told TOI.

As per Vijayabaskar, the process for the appointment of doctors, nurses, paramedical and administrative staff, and purchase of equipment has already initiated.

Also Read: Tamil Nadu to add 450 more MBBS seats