Health Ministry: There will be medical colleges in every district, both the centre and the state will spend

Nirmala Sitharaman, the minister of finance, has announced the creation of an expert committee to set up new medical colleges. Two in Maharashtra, three in Himachal Pradesh, and twenty-seven in Uttar Pradesh are among the 157 new medical colleges the government announced last year, according to sources in the Union Health Ministry. This is a trial project to start a medical college in every district, which will serve as the model for the future establishment of medical colleges across the nation.

Sources said that this committee will have a total of 12 members, including six retired experts. This committee will be formed by the Union Health Ministry and the National Medical Science Commission (NMC) before the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Not only this, the committee also has the responsibility of giving its recommendation regarding one hospital per district, because at present there are 17 states in the country where there is not a district hospital in every district.

A senior official of the ministry said, 'There is a plan to establish new medical colleges in two ways. The first method is 60:40 under which both the central and state governments will spend together. The second way is to open colleges using the infrastructure of existing hospitals in various departments.

The central government has increased the number of medical colleges by 82% so far in both its tenures, from 387 before 2014 to 704 now. Additionally, MBBS seats have now increased by 110% to 1,07,948. At the same time, PG seats have also increased by 117% from 31,185 before 2014 to 67,802. At present, there are a total of 704 medical colleges in the country but the number of districts is 764.

A senior official of the National Health Authority (NHA) said, there are about 23 lakh Asha and Anganwadi workers in the country, and the work of including them in the beneficiary list will be completed this year. On a question, he said that it will start before the upcoming Lok Sabha elections i.e. in April.

Dr. Neerja Bhatla, Head, Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics and Gynecology, Delhi AIIMS, termed the Centre's announcement of vaccination against cervical cancer as a necessary step. He said that cervical cancer is a disease that takes away the right to live. In 2020, 77,348 women died due to this in the country. The impact of the announcement of the vaccination campaign for girls aged 9 to 14 years can be seen in the next few years when India will be the first in the world to be on the path of becoming free from this disease.