Jagan inaugurates 5 medical colleges; adds 750 MBBS seats to state

Vizianagaram: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy inaugurated a medical college in Vizianagaram in person and four others in Machilipatnam, Rajahmundry, Eluru and Nandyala via a programme hosted online, on Friday.

Addressing the gathering of medicos and their faculty, the AP CM asked the students to become excellent doctors and serve the poor, rising to the expectations set by people on medical students in the state.

With the five new government medical colleges beginning their academic sessions, 750 new MBBS seats were added to the existing strength across the state. The new colleges were constructed at a cost of Rs 500 crores each.

All 26 districts to have one medical college each

The government has proposed to build 17 new medical colleges at a cost of Rs 8,480 crores to ensure that all 26 districts will each have one medical college and an attached hospital. Specialised tertiary and curative medical care will be accessible to people of all districts, he said.

While five more medical colleges are under construction at Pulivendula, Paderu, Adoni, Markapur and Madanapalle, which will begin functioning next year, the total number of colleges will be seven.

“When all new colleges and their attached hospitals start operations, the number of MBBS seats will go to 4,735 from 2,185, with all colleges having an additional PG intake of 2,737 students. At present, the number of PG seats stands at 1,767 which has gone up from 966 in the last four years. As many as 609 new PG seats have been added this year alone,” said Jagan.

53,126 vacancies filled

With new medical colleges being established and hospitals getting modernised under the Nadu-Nedu scheme, the government has also filled 53,126 vacancies in the medical and health department to meet the new demands, he said.

In all five newly-inaugurated medical colleges that have almost completed the admissions for the present year, facilities like laboratories, IFPs, Smart TVs, libraries, and microscopic and digital equipment were provided for a hassle-free academic session.

Taking a tour of the classrooms and the facilities, Jagan inspected laboratories and photo exhibitions besides spending quality time for photo sessions with students and faculty and interacting with them.

Further, the government has been upgrading its existing 11 medical colleges with an estimated expenditure of Rs 3,280 crore under the Nadu-Nedu scheme and new nursing colleges will also be coming up adding an additional strength of 1,200 seats.

10,032 village clinics established

In addition to increasing the number of ailments and procedures to 3,255 from 1,000, the government has also established 10,032 fully staffed and equipped village clinics to strengthen preventive healthcare involving family doctors and village clinics that will conduct 14 types of diagnostic tests and maintain stocks of 105 types of WHO standard medicines.

Along with the East Godavari, Nandyala, Krishna and Eluru district collectors and students of respective new medical colleges, PG students of the old medical colleges from Guntur and Tirupati also virtually interacted with the CM and shared their happiness over the launch of the new medical colleges.