Tripura govt allowed WB-based private medical college to use State referral hospital: Minister

Swadheen Trust with Shantiniketan Medical College faces opposition for using IGM hospital. Government permits the temporary use, following NMC guidelines. An MoU and caution money are required. Anubrata Mondal's trust constructs the college to address doctor shortages and aims to reserve seats for below poverty line students.

AGARTALA: Tripura government on Wednesday clarified that state referral hospital IGM has been allowed to West Bengal-based Swadheen Trust to run Shantiniketan Medical College using the hospital in a temporary arrangement to begin the teaching-learning process while responding to the objection raised by leader of the opposition Jitendra Chaudhury. The Government Spokesperson Transport and Tourism Minister Sushanta Chowdhury said that a process is underway to approve the temporary use of the IGM building for establishing the proposed Medical College following the guidelines prescribed by the National Medical Council (NMC). An MoU would be signed between the Medical College authority and the state government before allowing them to use the hospital. “The state government has stringent conditions for using the space of IGM and they have to deposit Rs 2 Cr as caution money and have to pay Rs 10,000 per student as compensation if their activity causes damage to any kind of infrastructure of the hospital. The use of IGM for teaching purposes will in other way enhance the service facilities in the hospital, as faculties of Shantiniketan Medical College would be part of the health service delivery system,” Chowdhury underlined. He pointed out that the central government encourages the use of public hospitals as teaching hospitals for private medical colleges, as outlined in the Establishment of Medical College Regulations, 1999 to manage the shortage of doctors. Based on this, as many as 27 new medical colleges were approved in Uttar Pradesh to use government hospitals. Similar cases are there in West Bengal, Bengaluru, and Pune, he claimed. Raising a serious allegation of money laundering, Jitendra Chaudhury wrote to Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha stating that the Swadheen Trust managed by Trinamool Congress leader of Birbhum district in West Bengal Anubrata Mondal who is in jail now in the charge of serious crimes and corruption has ventured to run Shantiniketan Medical College and demanded to stop its entry referring to a letter Leader of the Opposition of West Bengal assembly Subhendu Adhikari to Ministry of Health. He had also, objected to the move to allow state referral hospital IGM to be used as an annexed teaching hospital of Shantiniketan Medical College and questioned how before getting the sanction from the state government they erected the signboard in IGM and they started mobilizing materials, equipment, and hospital beds, occupying the space and infrastructure. However, the minister explained the issue and said the state government aims to enable local students to pursue medical education within the state, thereby increasing the number of doctors and improving healthcare services. The trust is constructing the college building on land purchased near Agartala with their funds and working on building a 600-bed hospital on their land, as required by the National Medical Council for establishing a medical college. He said, currently 1,189 doctors are serving in various healthcare facilities under the state government. However, according to WHO guidelines, the doctor-population ratio should be 1:1000, which is 1:3448 in Tripura. The state has 225 medical seats altogether, which is insufficient to meet the requirement for doctors. The proposed medical college will reserve seats for students from below the poverty line at the same rate as Agartala Government Medical College. Additionally, 50 percent of the seats will be reserved for the state’s students, he added.