KORAPUT: A three member team from the Medical Council of India (MCI) visited the upcoming medical college and hospital (MCH) campus to take stock of its progress, in Koraput town on Wednesday. The team included Dr K Shankar from Vijayawada, Dr Manik Charterjee from Raipur and Dr Subhankar from Osmania University, Hyderabad.
Apart from visiting the MCH campus, they went round the wards in the District Headquarters Hospital and spoke to officials concerned. They then visited Primary Health Centres at Dumuriput and Sunabeda that will serve as peripheral work place for the students.
While the existing 188-bed District Headquarters Hospital will be upgraded as per the norms of MCI, the medical college will be affiliated to Berhampur University (BU).
Last year, the BU syndicate, the apex decision-making body of the university, had accepted the proposal of the Director Medical Education and Training (DMET) for affiliation to 100 seats of the medical college in principle. The medical college is being constructed on 52 acres adjacent to the district hospital at an estimated cost of around `187 crore. The Centre is bearing 75 per cent of the project cost.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik laid the foundation stone of the college on August 3, 2015. Since the Government is willing to start admission in the new medical college next year, ideally the infrastructure should be ready by March next.
Admission can only be possible after the MCI team gives its nod after infrastructure inspection.
Sources said while the MCH building will be handed over to the State Government by March, it is not clear yet if the government can complete recruitment of faculty and non-faculty members before that.
Last year, the Centre had approved establishment of five Government medical colleges and hospitals at Balasore, Koraput, Balangir, Baripada and Puri in 2014. It was announced that all five medical colleges would have student intake capacity of 100 each and around `200 crore would be spent for upgradation of the DHHs to a full-fledged medical college and hospital in each district.