Malda, June 30: Years after mulling over the setting up of a medical college in agriculture-dominated Malda district, the hunt for land is now officially on to set up the facility.
Malda district magistrate Sridhar Ghosh said he had recently received a letter from the state health secretary asking for 25 acres of land where the medical college will be located.
“We have been told to identify the plot and send a report to the health department as soon as possible. A copy of the letter has also been sent to the chief medical officer of health,” Ghosh said.
Chief medical officer of health Srikanta Roy said land available within the district hospital compound was going to be measured first and then other options explored. “We have approached the land and land reforms department to carry out the exercise. There should be no problems in locating the land,” Roy said.
He said most of the infrastructure required to set up a medical college was already in place. “The district hospital is a 700-bed facility and it also has medicine, surgical, gynaecology, orthopaedics, ENT, eye, dermatology and other departments,” Roy said. It also has a nursing training institute and quarters for doctors.
The medical college for Malda means a lot to the people in the district and others adjoining it as the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital is 280km away and Calcutta, where there are three teaching hospitals, is 334km away.A senior physician of the district health department said the medical college would need 12 specialised laboratories that will take a lot of money to be set up. “However, the district hospital has eight laboratories and those that have to be added are the ones for a dissection room, labs for preventive medicine and pharmacology and another pathology for students and forensic medicine.”
The hospital here is located on about 22 acres of land. “We are also looking at land close to the district hospital that belongs to the government. There is also the old hospital building in the area. Considerable land is available at the Moulpur health centre in Old Malda, just 12km from the district hospital. We are putting together a report in conformation with the norms laid down by the Medical Council of India and will send it to the state health department as soon as possible,” Ghosh said.
Courtesy: The Statesman |
Home | About Us | Contact
Us | Site Map | Feedback
