BHAWANIPATNA/BHUBANESWAR: The newly-built government medical college and hospital (MCH) at Bhawanipatna in Kalahandi district on Thursday received a letter of intent (LoI) for starting admission of students from the 2023-24 academic session.
The LoI has been issued by the National Medical Commission (NMC) following an affidavit submitted by the Health and Welfare department that all infrastructure facilities, faculty and resident doctors will be provided as per the norms. A team from the medical commission had visited the MCH in February and submitted the assessment report on the availability of infrastructure, labs, library, hostels, hospital, faculty and paramedical staff on February 14.
The MCH affiliated to the Kalahandi university has an intake capacity of 100 MBBS seats per year. The state government has been asked to submit undertakings with an assurance to provide essential documents for the issue of a letter of permission (LoP) for starting admission. The NMC has made it clear that no student should be admitted in the college till the formal permission of the medical assessment and rating board (MARB) is received.
Built at a cost of Rs 220 crore over a sprawling 35 acre area at Bhangabari on the outskirts of Bhawanipatna, the MCH has six academic blocks. Since the Rs 206 crore teaching hospital is under construction, the existing hospital at Bhawanipatna is being developed into a 330-bed hospital to meet the requirements.
Health secretary Shalini Pandit said most of the faculty and paramedical staff have already joined the college. “The pending works will be completed soon and we are hopeful of obtaining the LoP for 100 seats this academic session,” she said.
Once the LoP is issued, this will be the 11th government MCH in the state taking the total number of seats to 2,300, including 750 seats in private medical colleges. With this, the KBK region will have one medical college each in the three districts. The MCHs in Koraput and Balangir are already functional.