6 peripheral hospitals can now also teach

Chennai: Here is some good news. Six peripheral hospitals in Chennai have been upgraded as teaching institutions. The hospitals were awaiting upgradation for more than a year. A senior medical official said following the government decision, the strength of staff, medical, paramedical and sanitary workers at the peripheral hospitals will improve. Each hospital which already had special units will now have professors to head the institutions, he said.

As part of efforts to provide greater medical care, the government decided to convert the peripheral hospitals at Anna nagar, K.K. Nagar, Periyar Nagar, Tondiarpet, Saidapet and Injambakkam to teaching institutions. The sanctioned strength of doctors can be enhanced. The Medical Council of India (MCI) had been informed of the upgradation, the official said. The directorate of medical education (DME) on Saturday continued its counselling for the PG degree and diploma courses. The sudden cancellation and re-convening of counselling session created a stir among a few participants.

“All is not well with the state health department that kickstarted counselling for PG degree and diploma courses early this week,” a few PG students who took part in the counselling alleged. “The DME had cancelled the third phase of counselling for reasons best known to it and we were informed about the revised schedule suddenly,” they said.

When contacted, an official in-charge of counselling clarified that four seats were additionally sanctioned by MCI only a few days ago, and this had to be included in the counselling. Due to this reason, the third phase of counselling which was to have been conducted from June 2 to June 4 was cancelled. The eligible candidates were again interviewed on Saturday, the official added.