AGARTALA: Tripura Transport Minister Sushanta Chowdhury sharply reacted to Leader of Opposition Jitendra Choudhury’s letter addressing the Chief Minister accusing the government of privatising a fully functional government hospital (IGM Hospital) located in Agartala on Tuesday.
Slamming the opposition party CPI-M for hatching conspiracies to mislead the people of Tripura ahead of the visit of National Medical Council (NMC) delegates, the minister said, “No state government is empowered to approve proposals of setting up medical colleges in a state. NMC, which was formerly known as the Medical Council of India (MCI), is the only body capable of giving clearance to such proposals.”
He added further, “So far, we know the NMC delegates are soon arriving here in the state to carry out an inspection of the medical college site located very close to Agartala. The Shantiniketan Medical College group is already in the business of medical education and when they expressed their interest in setting up a medical college here, our government welcomed them. Whatever has happened so far is completely legal.”
Rubbishing the allegations raised by the CPI (M), Sushanta Chowdhury said, “In many states, the infrastructure of government medical hospitals is being used by private medical colleges. In Kerala, where the CPI (M) is in power, the students of private medical colleges have been allowed to witness autopsy examinations in government medical colleges. In Bangalore, Kasturba Medical College is using the local government hospital for teaching purposes.”
Talking about the World Health Organization’s standards for the doctor-patient ratio, he said, “In many cities like Pune and other parts of the country, you will find private medical colleges sign MoUs with government medical colleges for teaching purposes. In a state like Tripura, where we are far behind the WHO standards for doctors-patient ratio, we have to encourage private investments in the health sector.”
He added, “The 225 seats putting Agartala Government Medical College and Tripura Medical College together aren’t enough. According to WHO standards, we need one doctor for every one thousand people but we only have one doctor for more than three thousand people. The present strength of 1,189 doctors in our health department is not enough.”
The minister also clarified that the whole administration of the Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital located in Agartala City wouldn’t be taken over by the Shantiniketan Medical College group.
“They already have a medical college in Bengal’s Bolpur. They are using the local government hospital for teaching purposes. Similarly, they are seeking to ink an MoU with the Tripura health department to use IGM hospital for teaching purposes. The healthcare services will never get impacted by the MoU,” he added. (ANI)
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