State makes last-ditch bid to increase medical seats

Jharkhand has mounted pressure on the Union Health Ministry to get approval for additional seats for three medical colleges in the State as the decision on the increased seats is likely to be made in next few days. To put up a strong case for the State’s medical colleges, the department of Health has rushed Principal of MGM Medical College and Hospital to Delhi apparently to appease Union Health Minister JP Nadda.

Confirming the effort initiated on the part of the department, Health Minister Ramchandra Chandravanshi said, “Yesterday (on Tuesday) we sent Principal of MGM with a letter to Delhi. JP Nadda had said that he is looking into it and he will increase the seats. A decision is likely to be announced in one or two days”.

Notably, entrance examination for 350 seats was conducted for the sessions 2015-16 also despite failure at previous attempts to get the stamp of Medical Council of India (MCI) to offer medical education to students admitted on increased seats. Number of seats was slashed to 190 after MCI expressed dissatisfaction over the infrastructure at the three medical colleges to sustain the responsibility to offer quality education thus allowing Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences to conduct academic activities on 90 seats whereas maintained the number of seats at Patliputra Medical College and Hospital and MGM Medical College and Hospital at 50 each.

Nonetheless, Chandravanshi expressed that the Union Health Ministry would adopt a pro-Jharkhand stand over increasing seats at the three medical colleges.“A Union Minister is supreme hence whatever comes out of his mouth would not be wrong,” maintained Chandravanshi.

Meanwhile, the Health Minister expressed gratitude to Chief Minister, Raghubar Das for accepting the department’s suggestion to increase the scope of treatment of incurable diseases with the help of government funds. The number of incurable diseases treated with the State’s assistance has been increased to 85 and the assistance for incurable disease will now be provided to families earning `72,000 per annum.

Assistance upto `2.5-lakh under the scheme will be approved on the recommendation by a committee of Health department headed by Director-in-Chief, Health Services whereas diseases where the treatment cost would be more than `4-lakh will be approved upon recommendation by a district level committee sent to Director-in-Chief with valid documents.

The department has changed the structure of the district level committee and decided to include representatives from social sector in the board to make it more representative. The overhauled committee which was earlier headed by deputy commissioner will now be led by Civil Surgeon, a representative of deputy commissioner, representative of Sadar Hospital and official concerned with the allocation of funds for a particular disease.