Jharkhand plans four medical colleges in Jamtara, Khunti, Dhanbad and Giridih

A medical college with 100 MBBS seats will soon be established in Jharkhand’s Jamtara district under the public-private partnership (PPP) model, an official said on Thursday. A Letter of Intent (LoI) was handed over to the agency on Thursday in the presence of state Health Minister Irfan Ansari.

Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Ajoy Kumar Singh said the government would provide an existing hospital to the agency to upgrade the current 100-bed facility into a 420-bed hospital. The agency would also establish a medical college with an intake capacity of 100 MBBS seats.

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Medical colleges in four districts

Apart from Jamtara, medical colleges will also be established in Khunti, Dhanbad and Giridih under the PPP model, Ansari said. “We have proposed four medical colleges — the first in Jamtara, followed by Giridih, Dhanbad and Khunti. The sites for all four medical colleges have been selected, and the tenders have also been floated,” the health minister said.

Meanwhile, a governing body meeting of the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) was held on Thursday under the chairmanship of Ansari. The minister said several proposals aimed at improving the institute’s functioning were approved during the meeting.

These included a proposal to introduce 10 new departments, including Medical Gastroenterology, Endocrinology, Cardiac Anaesthesia, Neuroanaesthesia and Medical Genetics. Ansari said RIMS was facing a shortage of seats for specialist courses. The government has decided to increase the number of specialist seats from the existing 11 to 150 and postgraduate (PG) seats from 176 to 250, he said.

The proposal will soon be forwarded to the state cabinet for consideration, the minister added. Ansari also said that security at RIMS would be strengthened by inducting retired army personnel.

(With PTI inputs)