HYDERABAD: Health Minister T Harish Rao on Tuesday directed officials to make all arrangements, including providing furniture and equipment, at nine medical colleges as classes are likely to start from July.
Chairing a review meeting with officials along with Ministers P Ajay Kumar, Vemula Prasanth Reddy and Satyvathi Rathod here, Harish Rao directed them to expedite the works and recruit associate professors and assistant professors for these nine medical colleges by July.
He said that the credit for starting the medical colleges in the hinterland goes to Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. The number of medical colleges in the State was just five before 2014 and has now gone up to 26 with the inauguration of nine medical colleges this year, Harish Rao said. The number of MBBS seats too were increased to 2,790 from 850 seats, he said.
Harish Rao said that Telangana stood No. 1 in the country with 19 MBBS seats per every one lakh population and seven PG seats for one lakh population. “While medical seats have increased by 71% in the country, it was 240% in Telangana after 2014,” he said.
These nine medical colleges are in Jangaon, Vikarabad, Khammam, Kamareddy, Karimnagar, Jayashankar-Bhupalpally, Rajanna-Sircilla, Nirmal and Komaram Bheem-Asifabad districts. “While the Centre sanctioned 157 medical colleges across the country, not even one was sanctioned for Telangana,” he alleged.
Foundation laid for hospital
Earlier in the day, Harish Rao laid the foundation stone for the 200-bed super-speciality Mother and Child Hospital (MCH) in Erramanzil in the city.