Dharamsala: The Centre is considering
raising the retirement age of faculty doctors of medical colleges from 65 to 70 years, Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad Wednesday said.
Azad made the announcement while addressing a public
gathering after laying the foundation stone of a 150 crore
super speciality hospital at Tanda near here.
Highlighting the steps taken by the government to augment
the standards of medical education in the country, he said in
the last three years, the Centre has raised the number of MD
seats in medical colleges up to 4700 per year as against 300
in previous years.
Noting that India`s population is expected to touch the
120 crore mark next year, he said there is need for at least
600 medical colleges to cater to a population like that,
whereas the country has just 314 at the moment (including 160
in the private sector) which are producing less than 10
doctors for per 10,000 people.
One medical school at every district headquarters shall
be opened from the next session, which shall prepare doctors
in three years, he said, adding these doctors shall be
appointed in rural areas after three months of internship.
However, these doctors will not be entitled to perform
any surgery, he said.
Talking about the super speciality hospitals in medical
colleges, he said that 13 of them were sanctioned last year
for the entire country and six this year including Tanda
Medical College.
He said that this will include ecology, cardiology,
cardiac surgery, nephrology, neuron surgery and other
facilities besides 200-bed special wards.
Azad said the project shall be completed in 18 months.
PTI
