Medical College to reduce the dependency on mainland hospitals for specialized treatment
Mohammed Sajid
Port Blair, May 06: Here is a good news for Islanders, Andaman’s own Medical College will soon be a reality as the Administration is planning to start the first session of the Medical College from June 2015.
Addressing a press conference in the Conference hall of Secretariat the Chief Secretary said that the total proposed capital requirement for the college is 342.14 Cr.
He said that following a PIL and subsequent feasibility study by the Expert Committee, the High Court of Calcutta, Circuit Branch at Port Blair passed a judgement on August 05, 2008 and directed to implement the recommendations of the Expert Committee to establish a Medical College, within a period of six months. Subsequently, a Detailed Project Report was made to establish the Medical College at Dudh Line campus utilizing the facilities of GB Pant Hospital as Teaching Hospital by A & N Administration.
The Chief Secretary added that in Oct 2013, keeping in view, the national scarcity of health care personnel, the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Govt of India has instituted a Centrally Sponsored Scheme to establish 55 Medical Colleges in the country by upgrading district and equivalent Hospitals to add 10,000 under graduate Medical Seats per year. In the scheme central assistance will be upto 90% in North East and other difficult-accessed states.
“It remained a long cherished dream of A&N Islands to have a Medical College of their own. Lt. General (Retd.) A. K. Singh, Lt. Governor reiterated his key result areas in Education, Health & general welfare of the Island’s inhabitants and directed to take all necessary steps so as to start the Medical College at Port Blair by 2015, also taking into consideration the possible contempt of the judgement of High Court of Calcutta. The Medical College will not only give higher medical education to the Islands’ students but also will improve the health care standards and provide impetus to the Island’s economy. The establishment of a Medical College is a strictly well defined activity incorporating preparation, submission and approval of a DPR, continuous incremental employment of faculty and creation of augmented facilities. These activities are repeatedly inspected by MCl, official of MOH & FW and faculty of Affiliating University. These deliberate activities may take 5-7 years from inception to completion,” the CS added.
He said that the DPR, which was prepared in 2010, is being upgraded by refining the present demographic and other relevant data and the project is being modified in present scenario to utilize the Centrally Sponsored Scheme. The Andaman & Nicobar Administration, under the leadership of Lt. General (Retd.) A. K. Singh, Lt. Governor, has taken a commitment to go through all the rigorous procedures to create a state of the art Medical College in the A & N Islands on which not only local inhabitants but even the country can take pride. The Medical Institution comprises of a Hospital and College Campus. It is very prudent that to utilize the facilities of the GB Pant Hospital, a college campus is created, nearby. It is further stressed that creating a duplicate hospital due to heavy infrastructure cost and limited user load, is not viable at present.
“It is also reiterated that all health related avenues are complimentary to each other instead of being competitive with each other. Hence, Allopathic Medical Education will definitely not be encouraged at the cost of Ayush modalities. In fact, the administration wants to develop integrated system of Indian Healthcare wherein all prevalent healthcare systems will help each other to enhance the physical, mental, social and spiritual health of all inhabitants of the Islands. The Ayush will definitely not be given step-motherly treatment but be integrated in the larger scheme of the healthcare of the Islands. However, it should be appreciated that to achieve the higher goals, some inconvenience may have to be suffered for a short while, which in the hind sight may be felt like a wise step in future,” he said.
The Chief Secretary said that it is a matter of anguish and disappointment that still a large deficiency in the trained healthcare personnel, more so in the Islands, persists. It is projected that with the Establishment of the Medical College, faculty of medical college, augmentation of facilities and infrastructure, studying UG & PG students will ameliorate this scarcity to large extent in the Islands.
“The Medical College will provide trained man power in various branches of healthcare to alleviate existing health standards in the islands. Several other health related Institutions like Nursing, Radiography, Ophthalmology, Pharmacy and various Technician courses in various fields would also be started to augment the medical college later on. This will also give a tremendous boost to medical tourism in the Islands in addition to providing higher education and employment avenues for the islanders. Presently the rich and affluent Islanders are only able to afford the expensive medical care at mainland while, the poor and down-trodden patients are left at serious disadvantage, in turn having adverse effects on their health. Definitely, establishment of own Medical College will reduce the dependency on mainland hospitals for treatment of seriously ill patients,” he added.
Major General Dr. Ajay Kumar Dutta (VSM) (retd), who was also present during the press conference gave a power point presentation to the media person during the press conference.
