Coming academic year, 750 more medicine aspirants will be able to pursue MBBS in Andhra Pradesh as the State government’s effort to establish 17 medical colleges has partly been realised.
In the first phase, five government medical colleges (GMCs) in Vizianagaram, Rajamahendravaram, Eluru, Machilipatnam and Nandyal are going to admit 150 students each and begin classwork from the coming academic year in September or later in the year. The National Medical Commission has reportedly accorded permission to admit students to these five medical colleges from the coming academic year.
The infrastructure required for the same is being developed in the respective locations. Currently, the construction of the seven priority blocks at each of these five medical colleges is in its advanced stages. These blocks include the departmental block, laboratories block, lecture gallery block, hostel for boys, hostel for girls, administrative block and examination block.
All the requirements, including principal’s room; HoDs’ rooms; medical education unit; demonstration room; kitchen; dining room; haematology, mammalian and amphibian laboratories; departmental rooms; examination hall; dissection hall; histology lab; clinical physiology laboratory; lecture galleries; reading room; and hostel rooms, required for 150 MBBS students and staff will be available in the seven priority blocks.
A.P. Medical Services and Infrastructure Development Corporation (APMSIDC) executive engineer at GMC, Machilipatnam, D. Ravindra Babu said over 90% of the work on priority blocks (1.42 lakh sq.ft.) has been completed and the rest will be done within a month. The entire college infrastructure, including a 670-bed hospital on 64.38 acres, will be developed by the end of 2024.
Director of Medical Education Dr. D.S.V.L. Narasimham said the same is the case with all the five medical colleges preparing for classwork. “More than 90% of the construction has been completed in all the colleges and the works will be completed by the end of the month.”
“Only in Nandyal, we don’t have a hostel building due to legal issues. As an alternative, we have rented a private hostel building and arranged transportation too. Orders for furniture, laboratory equipment and others have been placed by APMSIDC, which is responsible for the development of infrastructure for the colleges.
All the new medical colleges will be associated with the district hospitals run by the A.P. Vaidya Vidhan Parishad in their respective towns, but none is on the same compound.
“In the first year, students do not need hospitals as per the curriculum. Later, we will arrange transportation between the hospital and college until the teaching hospital facility is built on the college premises,” Dr. Narasimham said.
According to Health Minister Vidadala Rajini, A.P. has had only 11 government medical colleges over the past 100 years, starting with the Andhra Medical College, established in 1923. She said the government is spending ₹8,500 crore to establish 17 government medical colleges and the remaining 12 will be established by next year.
According to her, the number of MBBS seats has been increased from 2,185 to 2,935 for the academic year 2023-2024. The government plans to inaugurate the colleges in August 2023.
