CHENNAI: The number of government medical colleges in Tamil Nadu will soon increase from 24 to 30, as the Union Health Ministry has granted approval to start six more medical colleges in the State with 150 MBBS seats in each of them.
According to an official source, “The Centre has given approval for the new medical colleges under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) scheme. As per the scheme, six government district headquarters’ hospitals, in Ramanathapuram, Virudhunagar, Nilgiris, Dindigul, Tirupur and Namakkal, will be upgraded as medical college hospitals.”
“While the Centre will sanction 60 per cent of the total expenditure for the facilities, the State will contribute the remaining, 40 per cent. With the approval, the number of MBBS seats in Government medical colleges is likely to go up from 3,350 to 4,250. Tamil Nadu has the highest number of government MBBS seats in the country,” the official added.
“If everything goes as planned, the 900 MBBS seats will be added in the coming academic year itself, and distributed through counselling. The district collectors of Ramanathapuram, Virudhunagar, Nilgiris, Dindigul, Tirupur and Namakkal have also allotted land for the medical colleges,” the source added.
As per the eligibility criteria, each hospital should treat over 300 in-patients and out-patients, but all these district headquarters hospitals have been treating over 600 patients on a daily basis. The State has infrastructure and the manpower to put these colleges to use as early as possible, said officials.