Uttar Pradesh plans 16 new medical colleges in PPP mode

NEW DELHI: To improve the health scenario, the Uttar Pradesh medical education department has decided to provide incentives for setting up medical colleges on a public-private partnership (PPP) model in 16 districts in the state.

The idea of the public-private partnership (PPP) model is to link new or existing private medical colleges with the government district hospitals under a public-private partnership, or PPP, agreement.

The 16 districts where there is no government or private medical college are Baghpat, Mainpuri, Sant Kabeer Nagar, Ballia, Rampur, Bhadohi, Kasganj, Maharajganj, Shamli, Chitrakoot, Mahoba, Hamirpur, Mau, Shravasti, Sambhal, and Hathras.

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"The policy aims to provide fiscal and/or non-fiscal incentives and other support to incentivize private sector entities to set up medical colleges and hospital facilities," the official notice said.

The authorities have also decided to consider the application of private sector entities with previous experience in the relevant field of implementation.

There were only 17 medical colleges and hospitals prior to 2016 and the state today has 16 unserved districts left in terms of planning and development of medical colleges.

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The Uttar Pradesh government is inviting applications in three modes.

• The private sector shall bring in own operational hospital and adequate land for setting up of medical college.
• The authority shall provide land on lease to the private sector entity for setting up of the medical college.
• The authority shall provide an existing district hospital on lease to the applicant. The Applicant shall have the obligation to bring adequate land parcel in accordance with the extant regulations for the development of medical college infrastructure notified by National Medical Commission (NMC).

The application process adopted by the state government is a single-stage process.

According to an estimate, the medical colleges to be set up in 16 districts will have 1600 new doctors while about 10,000 people will get jobs in them, according to the Hindustan Times report.

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