Eight medical colleges to begin academic sessions today

 In what can be termed as a revolutionary step that will boost medical education in the State, eight new medical colleges spread across different districts will be starting academic sessions from Tuesday. With this move, the number of medical seats have been tripled in just a span of eight years since the formation of Telangana.  

The new medical colleges will not only be beneficial for 1,150 medical students but will also make available better medical infrastructure at the district-level, making it easier for the poor and needy to avail medical facilities without having to rush to the over-crowded State-run hospitals. These medical colleges were upgraded and attached to the existing government general hospitals. 

These colleges are located at Rajanna-Siricilla, Vikarabad, Khammam, Kamareddy, Karimnagar, Jayashankar-Bhupalpally, Kumurambheem-Asifabad and Jangaon districts. With the launching of new medical colleges, the number of MBBS seats have gone up to 2,790 from 850 in 2014. The PG medical seats have increased to 1,122 from 531 in 2014. The new medical facilities will provide services in as many as 35 different departments. 

After the inauguration of medical colleges, every medical college will have 449 doctors and over 600 paramedical supporting staff. At the time of formation of State, Telangana used to have only five medical colleges, out of which two were established before the formation of Andhra Pradesh. 

These medical colleges have become reality as the State government resolved to establish a medical college in each of the 33 districts in the State. In August, the State government has given administrative sanction of Rs 1,479 crore to establish these eight medical colleges.