BENGALURU: Karnataka will soon get a new medical education policy and more medical colleges will be set up through public private partnership, Minister for Health and Medical Education, Dr K Sudhakar, said on Tuesday.The state needs more medical colleges to meet the demand for doctors and the government is willing to set up more medical colleges through PPP, Sudhakar said, after Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa inaugurated the Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre in Shivajinagar. The newly built institute has 150 seats for the MBBS course.
“Establishing a medical college requires Rs 600-700 crore. If it is built through PPP, it will reduce the burden on state exchequer and also help provide affordable medical education and treatment to the needy. This model is being adopted in Gujarat and will be implemented here as well,” he said.
As per WHO guidelines there should be one doctor for 1,000 population. But in our country, there is a doctor for every 10,000-12,000 population. “There is a necessity to increase the number of medical colleges to produce more number of doctors. Prime Minister Narendra Modi government has added over 157 medical colleges in the last six years. Central government has a vision to set up 22 All India Institute of Medical Sciences across the country, one in each state,” added Dr Sudhakar.
The state also plans to bring in AIIMS in the state. “We are committed to have one AIIMS in our state too. The process of obtaining permission is already in progress and soon there will be an AIIMS functional in the state. There will be a new health and medical education policy in the state soon,” said Dr Sudhakar.
“We are increasing the bed capacity of district hospitals, providing better infrastructure and constructing hostel facilities where there are no medical colleges,” he added.