Medical college: Infra woes haunt state govt

SHILLONG, Jan 12: Shillong Medical College has been hanging fire for a long time now, and the government continues to be beleaguered by dearth of infrastructure which is a prerequisite insofar as setting up medical institutions is concerned.
Health and Family Welfare Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh on Friday said it is not easy to set up a medical college, even as she admitted that the state lacks important infrastructures to set up medical institutions.
She said that the state does not have the required number of doctors and even senior doctors who would be willing to become professors. She even saw the state wanting in terms of a policy for Human Resource to enable doctors to opt for teaching and to extend their services to 65 years like in other states.
“We will need doctors which will be manning the various departments in the medical institutions. Do we have infrastructure or hostels ready? Are the hostels available? Do we have experts in administration to help government run these institutions? So the government running the medical college will be far more challenging,” Lyngdoh said.
She said that it is for this reason that the government is contemplating partnership models with USTM and institutions which have done well and have excelled in medical institutions or colleges. “So many things have to be taken into consideration,” the minister said.
According to her, availability of land and willingness of experts to serve in the state is another major problem.
She observed that they have seen a prestigious institution like NEIGRIHMS taking several years to stablilise due to the situation which is peculiar to the state.
Meanwhile, the Health minister said that the building of Tura Medical College is in advanced stage despite the loss of time and the cost escalation. “We have decided to put Tura Medical College on fast track mode,” she said.  She added that the state government is still committed to come up with the Shillong Medical College.
“We would want to have a medical college with the state-of-the-art facilities which will not just help students to become good doctors but they should be satisfied with the facilities around them,” Lyngdoh said.
She added that the Cabinet will sit to meet the norms to ensure that the state is able to set up medical colleges.
“We will continue with our efforts,” she said.