Five medical colleges to be opened this year: Krishna Babu

 Visakhapatnam: Special chief secretary of health and family welfare M.T. Krishna Babu said five new medical colleges would be opened in the next academic year, beginning this August.

The new colleges are located in Vizianagaram, Rajamahendravaram, Eluru, Machilipatnam and Nandyal. He said the National Medical Commission has sanctioned 150 seats for each medical college and in all 750 additional seats would be available for the students starting in the next academic year. The permission for Rajahmundry Medical College is pending but will be cleared shortly, Krishna Babu said.

“We want to complete the construction of these five medical colleges by July 15. The government also sanctioned 722 staff members for each college, including specialist doctors,” Krishna Babu said.

He said work on basic infrastructure like the supply of drinking water and dedicated power lines was nearing completion.

As per the NMC guidelines, a running hospital should have 330 beds and 1.2 lakh square feet of infrastructure, he added.

The special chief secretary said three more medical colleges would be opened next year, including Paderu, Pulivendula, and Adoni. Nine more medical colleges will be opened in 2026–27. Vizianagaram was the first college to complete all the work and was also the first to get permission from NMC, he added.

He said that the development of government medical college hospitals in the smaller towns would improve health services for the poorer sections of society.

The government has sanctioned Rs 500 crore for each medical college, he added.