Medical education in Punjab will get a big boost with four new Government Medical Colleges coming up at a cost of Rs 1,500 crores in Mohali, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, and Malerkotla.
Stating this after laying the foundation stone of the boundary wall of Dr BR Ambedkar State Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) SAS Nagar, Medical Education and Research Minister OP Soni said that there would be no dearth of doctors in Punjab as very soon about 500 additional doctors would pass out every year from upcoming government medical colleges.
“Presently, there are about 1400 MBBS seats in medical colleges (both private and government) of Punjab which would witness an augmentation of 500 more with the opening of these four medical colleges The land has been made available for all the colleges but AIMS Mohali is expected to be operationalized first since there is an existing 300-bedded hospital which just needs to be augmented to attach it to the Medical College,” he said.
Soni said that 80 percent of the faculty has been recruited for the Medical College and the process is on for recruitment of paramedics and other supporting staff. The NMC inspection has been applied and we are hoping to start the first batch of MBBS, this year, he said.
Soni said that consultants have been approved for Hoshiarpur and Kapurthala Medical Colleges as well and designs are being reviewed. Once the building designs are finalized, the tenders would be floated for them as well, he added.