Three new medical colleges will start functioning from the academic session in 2011. State health minister Suryakanta Mishra made this announcement in the Assembly on Wednesday.
The new medical colleges will be opened in Malda, Murshidabad and North 24 Parganas. Besides opening these new medical colleges, 695 seats at the undergraduate level are also being added to the existing ones.
Dr Mishra also informed the House that the medical practitioners who are not Indian citizens but have registered their names with the West Bengal Medical Council will lose their registration to practise.
“We have decided to set up three medical colleges with intake capacity of 100 each at Kamarhati in North 24 Parganas, Malda and Berhampore in Murshidabad. We will also increase 695 seats at the undergraduate level in the existing medical colleges,” Dr Mishra said.
At present, 11 medical colleges in the state have intake capacity of 1,355 in total at the MBBS level.
The minister also informed that since 2008, 300 seats have been increased in the post-graduate level. He, however, criticised the Medical Council of India (MCI) alleging that the policy of this body was detrimental to expand the medical education.
“The MCI suggests one teacher per student in the post graduate level which is irrational and unscientific. For this policy of the MCI, the number of doctors are being not increased according to the requirement,” Dr Mishra said.
The West Bengal Medical Council Bill, 2009, was also passed in the Assembly on Wednesday. This bill, once becomes an act, will empower the West Bengal Medical Council to summon a doctor against whom a complaint is lodged and if the doctor does not turn up before the Council, he or she may face legal action.
However the West Bengal Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Bill, 2009, which was supposed to be considered and passed in the state Assembly on Wednesday was deferred till Thursday as the bill was circulated among the MLAs just a few minutes before the start of the discussion on the bill.