Centre to Partly Fund Medical Colleges set up by States

In a bid to attract more youngsters to the medical profession, the Union Health Ministry decided to partially fund medical colleges set up by the states. For the first time since the 1990s when private participants were allowed to intervene into the medical education sector, a measure of this kind was taken. The decision marks a significant step ahead to bring down huge medical-education expense.

As per the scheme, out of the total expense state is going to provide the land and the rest of the 75-85 per cent of capital expense will be provided by the government. For special category states, the scheme would be about 90 per cent.

The expensive private medical colleges have led to many doctors to drift away from jobs in government hospitals. The doctors who wish to recover the costs they had incurred for their education get lured by the big pay pack offered by the private health centres. The cause of public health in the process gets ignored.

According to a report of the Planning Commission Working Group on tertiary care institutions for the 12th Five-Year Plan, of the 335 medical colleges recognised by the Medical Council of India, 154 are in the private sector where students pay Rs 2-3 lakh per year as fees and are often required to afford Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore as the capitation fees on top of that.

Under the 12th Five-Year Plan, the Health Ministry therefore set a target to set up 50 such medical colleges in the first phase.

With the scheme, the ministry hopes to be able to bring the medical-education into light states which are being deprived in terms of the medical-education in comparison to the more known hubs like Karnataka, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, and Maharashtra.