The Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) has made some changes in the proposal to start medical colleges in 11 districts of Maharashtra. The announcement of starting medical colleges was made earlier by Maharashtra Government. Looking into the requirements of people in each of the 36 districts of the state, 11 districts were selected for starting the new medical colleges.
The new medical colleges of an intake capacity of 100 students each and an attached hospital of 430 beds are proposed. The districts where the new medical colleges are under consideration include – Gadchiroli, Amravati, Hingoli, Washim, Buldana, Bhandara and Wardha in Vidarbha region, others being in Palghar, Jalna, Ambarnath and Ahmednagar.
DMER has proposed that allotting space for the new colleges and hospitals is possible as adequate land is available with the government. However, the construction work of the building and procurement of equipment and their installation may require longer period. The existing government hospitals in these districts may be attached to the new medical colleges to facilitate starting the academic work within a short period.
DMER has also pointed out the requirement of faculty and the cost involved in the construction of colleges and hospitals and also the staff. The proposal gains importance as the state is already facing a shortage of teachers in the existing medical colleges.
DMER has also mentioned the number of posts in each category required to be filled in on a regular basis and also on a contractual basis, with the expenditure to be incurred on them.
Presently the state has 57 medical colleges with a total intake capacity of 9,000. This includes 19 colleges of the state government three of the Centre, five of the municipality, 17 of non-granted private societies and 13 belonging to the deemed to be universities. The intake capacity of colleges of state government, Municipality and the Centre is only 4330.
By starting new government medical colleges additional 1100 seats for MBBS degree courses will be made available, the majority of which will be in the Vidarbha region.
