Revamped scheme for setting up medical colleges in the works
government could tweak the policy for setting up medical colleges in order to increase the intake of students and address the problem of shortage of doctors in the country, a senior official told ET.
The changes being considered include relaxing the norms for setting up medical colleges, enhanced fiscal and infrastructure support, and speedy approvals.
Government support will help them become viable at lower fee levels, making medical education more affordable.
Changes are likely in the next phase of the scheme which is expected to be rolled out in the coming months. The third phase of the centrally-sponsored scheme to augment human resources for health and medical education will come to an end on March 31 this year. The official cited earlier said that while there has been a significant surge in medical colleges in the last 10 years, a huge gap exists between the demand and supply of doctors and nurses in the country.
The states and the private sector are not forthcoming to the extent required and, hence, the need to make the existing scheme more attractive, he said. «We are firming up changes to the existing scheme to attract private-sector investment, and an announcement to this effect is expected to be made soon,» the official said.
The doctor-population ratio in the country is 1:834, while the nurse-population ratio is 1:476, assuming 80% availability under both categories out of the registered practitioners and nurses in the system.
Under the current scheme, 157 government medical colleges have been
