CHENNAI: To strengthen the administration of medical colleges across the state, the state government will create four posts of Regional Directors of Medical Education and Research, said Health Minister K G Arunraj on Friday. The state currently has a single Director of Medical Education and Research (DME), based in Chennai.
Addressing media persons at the Government Institute of Child Health and Hospital for Children, where he inaugurated an extracorporeal photopheresis unit, in which white blood cells are treated outside the body and infused back into the patient, Arunraj said the government had come up with the plan to create the posts and decentralise powers after consultations and discussions with government doctors’ associations.
Such distribution of powers has become necessary as the number of medical colleges have increased, with the government sector alone having 36 such institutions, he added. The minister said the regional DMEs would be a rank between the dean and the DME. Certain powers of the DME will be delegated to the regional DMEs, while certain powers of the government will be vested with the DME, he added.
Reiterating TN’s stand against the NEET, Arunraj said it was stressed upon even during the chief minister’s recent meeting with the union government’s High-Powered Task Force on Examination Reforms at the secretariat.
Kolathur MLA Babu still in ICU, says Arunraj
On the health condition of Kolathur MLA V S Babu, who was admitted to MGM Healthcare Hospital in Chennai in September for a respiratory ailment, Minister Arunraj said he continues to receive intensive care treatment there. An update on his health condition will be communicated with the press, he added.