New Delhi: Giving a boost to Health and Medical Education, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has given its approval for continuation and taking up additional phases of Human Resources for Health and Medical Education schemes, at a total estimated cost of Rs.14,930.92 crore upto 2019-20.
Salient Features:
- New Medical Colleges:
· Continuation of ongoing scheme to establish 58 new medical colleges attached with existing District/Referral hospitals already approved under Phase-l by 2019-20.
· selection and establishment of 24 new medical colleges attached with existing District/ Referral hospitals under Phase-lI by 2021-22.
· The locations of proposed 24 new medical colleges in Phase-ll will be selected within the identified underserved areas in Challenge Mode.
An amount of Rs. 5,587.68 crore is proposed for the ongoing scheme under Central share during Phase-I. Phase-II entails an amount of Rs.3,675 crore to be spent till 2021-22 as central share out of which an amount of Rs.2,600 crore is proposed to be spent till 2019-2020.
- Increase of Medical Seats: Continuation of Centrally Sponsored Scheme for Up-gradation of existing State Government/Central Government Medical colleges resulting in:
· increase of 10,000 UG seats by 2020-21 and
· 8,058 PG seats (4,058 in Phase-l by 2018-19 and 4,000 in Phase-ll by 2020-21).
Increase of UG seats entails an amount of Rs.7,795 crore as central share and is likely to be spent till 2021-22 out of which an amount of Rs.4,536 crore is proposed to be spent till 2019-20.
Increase of PG seats under Phase-II entail an amount of Rs.3,024 crore as central share to be spent till 2021-22 out of which an amount of Rs.1,700 crore is proposed to be spent till 2019-20 while Rs.317.24 crore as balance central share will be spent for Phase-I of PG seats.
- Nursing Scheme: Continuation and completion of scheme for setting up of:
· 112 Auxiliary Nursing and Midwifery (ANM) Schools and
· 136 General Nursing Midwifery (GNM) Schools by 2019-20 in under-served districts of the country.
This Nursing Scheme will be implemented and completed with an amount of Rs.190 crore till 2019-20 for the schools where work has already been started.
Impact:
The establishment of new medical colleges and increase of MBBS and PG seats would:
i) increase the availability of health professionals,
ii) check the existing geographical distribution of medical colleges in the country,
iii) promote affordable medical education in the country,
iv) utilise the existing infrastructure of district hospitals, and
v) improve tertiary care in the Government sector.
It has been planned to ensure at least one medical college for every 3-5 Parliamentary Constituencies and at least one Government medical colleges in the State. It was worked out that we need to sanction 24 new Medical Colleges in the Phase II of the scheme to have one medical college for three Parliamentary constituencies which will facilitate covering the underserve areas. The location of new medical colleges in Phase-II of the scheme will be selected by the State Government within the identified blocks in a ‘Challenge Mode’.
Benefits:
The scheme will serve to:
- Create additional 10,000 MBBS and 8,000 PG seats in the country,
- Bridge the gap in number of seats available in government and private sector,
- Mitigate the shortage of Doctors/specialists/medical faculty in the country by increasing the number of eats and to achieve the desired doctor population ratio,
- Upgrade PG teaching facilities in Government Medical Colleges,
- Introduce new and higher courses of study,
- Improve the quality of medical education, medical research and clinical treatment.
Background:
According to Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 3, ensuring healthy lives and promoting the well-being for all at all ages is essential to sustainable development and as per World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations, there should be one doctor for 1,000 population. Adequate availability of human resources in health is a necessary prerequisite for this. To attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and to meet WHO standards for Human Resources in Health (HRH), Schemes have been proposed for making available more Human Resources in Health sector, i.e. Doctors, Nurses in the country.
