Admission to eight new medical colleges will begin from 2023, says Telangana Health Minister Harish Rao

Hyderabad: Eight medical colleges in Telangana will begin their admission process by the academic year, 2022-2023, out of the 12 officially sanctioned medical colleges in the state, Minister T Harish Rao recently announced in the assembly.

Twelve medical colleges were sanctioned for the state after its formation, out of which four colleges at Mahabubnagar, Siddipet, Suryapet, and Nalgonda have started functioning, he said during the question hour, reports the Telangana Today.

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As per a media report in The New Indian Express, the eight colleges in Sangareddy, Mahabubabad, Mancherial, Wanaparthy, Bhadradri Kothagudem, Jagtial, Nagarkurnool and Ramagundam would be beginning their academic session by 2022-2023.

The minister further said that the state government has decided to establish 33 medical colleges across the State against the three medical colleges that were set up during the last 60 years. He added that the National Medical Council application formalities have been completed and the infrastructure works are currently in progress.

The government has also decided to do the up-gradation of attached hospitals at Asifabad, Bhupalpally, Vikarabad, Sircilla, Jangaon, Kamareddy, Karimnagar, and Khammam. The minister was responding to the TRS legislator K Chandar.

He said that around 2000 MBBS seats are being added to the state every year, adding that there were 700 seats during 2014 in the state which has been increased to 2,850 seats. He noted that the state government has been giving the topmost priority to the medical and health sector in the state, and keeping this in mind, 27,000 beds were upgraded to oxygen beds, and 26 liquid oxygen tanks were set up at 26 hospitals across the state.

Further, the minister said that the seats for post-graduate medical courses in the newly established colleges would be announced three or four years after the first MBBS batch takes admission.

There were 200 ICU beds and 100 more beds ready for inauguration at the NIMS hospital, in addition to which 100 more beds would be made ready by next month. Responding to the TRS legislator Marri Janardhan Reddy who enquired about the dearth of dead bodies in teaching hospitals, the minister replied that a joint meeting would be convened with the Home department shortly to discuss the issue. He added that a small amendment was needed in the rules to initiate handing over unknown bodies to teaching hospitals for training purposes.

Meanwhile, the minister criticized the central government stating that it was showing discrimination towards Telangana in sanctioning medical colleges. He said that while 171 government medical colleges were sanctioned to other states, not a single medical college was sanctioned to Telangana. However, he added that the state government would continue with its developmental program of setting up a medical college in each of the 33 districts in the state, reports the TNIE.

The center generally provides a grant of Rs 200 crore for setting up each medical college. However, as per the report in Telangana Today, there was no response from the center when the Telangana government applied for similar grants to set up 33 medical colleges.

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