Notwithstanding Uttarakhand Government’s decision to set up five new medical colleges in different areas of State, the ground reality is that these colleges could take years to come up. These medical colleges would be set up at Almora, Pithoragarh, Rudrapur, Bhagwanpur (Haridwar) and Kotdwar. Buoyed over the letter of Permission (lOP) from Medical Council of India (MCI) for the Government Doon Medical College (GDMC), the State Government is focussing on these colleges now.
Interestingly, the Government is yet to earmark land for the proposed medical colleges in Pithoragarh, Kotdwar and Bhagwanpur. Out of these five colleges only Sobhan Singh Jeena Medical College of Almora is in a position that if pursued properly it can become operational in a year or two.
Here too, the State Government has not made any recruitment of faculty members. The Chief Minister Harish Rawat has announced that the Medical Colleges of Kotdwar, Bhagwanpur and Rudrapur would be constructed on Public Private Partnership (PPP) model. However, the medical education department is yet to take any decision on the modalities of the PPP model for these medical colleges.
The Director, Medical Education, Dr Ashutosh Sayana told The Pioneer that the work on the medical college of Almora is going on at a rapid pace and the department is making an effort to invite the Medical Council of India (MCI) team for inspection of facilities for lOP in this year.
On the lines of GDMC where Doon hospital was merged with the medical college to get the requisite condition of an associated hospital of 300 beds fulfilled, the Government has decided to take over the Gowardhan Tiwari Base Hospital for Almora medical college. like GDMC, the academic and administrative blocks in Almora medical college are being constructed at a distance of about 07 kilometres from the associated hospital.
Dr Sayana said that an amount of Rs 99 Crore have been spent on the construction of building of this hospital till date. It is learnt that if the State Government would soon appoint a Principal for Almora medical college and do recruitment of staff as CM Harish Rawat is personally pushing for its cause so that he can show this as one of his achievement in his home district of Almora during next year’s assembly elections.
In Rudrapur, the hospital which would be the associated hospital for medical college is almost complete but academic and administrative buildings are yet to come up.