PM Modi inaugurates 11 new medical colleges in Tamil Nadu

With the inauguration of 11 new government medical colleges by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, almost every district in Tamil Nadu now has a medical college that will take tertiary healthcare further close to the people.

The 11 medical colleges which were constructed at a cost of Rs 4,000 crore – 60 per cent funded by the Union Government and the remaining 40 per cent by the state government – have come up at Ariyalur, Dindigul, Nagapattinam, Krishnagiri, Virudhunagar, Kallakurichi, Udhagamandalam, Namakkal, Tiruvallur, Tiruppur and Ramanathapuram.

This takes the number of government medical colleges to 36, and the total number of medical colleges in the state to 69, the highest in the country. With this, almost every district in Tamil Nadu barring Kanchipuram, Perambalur and the newly carved out districts of Ranipet, Tirupattur, and Tenkasi in the state has a government medical college.

All the 11 medical colleges were sanctioned during the 2017-2021 tenure of the then Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and a major part of the construction was completed before the DMK assumed office in May 2021. However, DMK maintains a couple of the medical colleges were proposed by the state government led by it in the first half of 2011 before AIADMK came to power.

“It is important to address regional imbalances. In that light, it is good to see two of the medical colleges inaugurated are in the aspirational districts of Ramanathapuram and Virudhunagar. These are districts where development needs require special attention. One college is in the remote hilly district of Nilgiris,” Modi said in his address via video conferencing.

Modi also said the Centre would provide Rs 3,000 crore to Tamil Nadu in the next five years for establishing Urban Health & Wellness Centres, District Public Health labs and Critical Care Blocks across the state.

It was the then Chief Minister M Karunanidhi during 2006-2011 tenure who formulated the idea of setting up a medical college in every district in Tamil Nadu in a bid to take tertiary healthcare further close to the people.

The 11 new colleges will admit 1,450 students in MBBS from the current academic year and the number of government school students who get into medical colleges after clearing NEET is expected to increase owing to legislation passed by the erstwhile AIADMK government providing 7.5 per cent reservation to them in admission.

Public health experts say tertiary healthcare is very important as hospitals under this category will have super-speciality departments and high-end diagnostic facilities which will help people get treated in their areas without having to travel to big cities.

“Almost every district in Tamil Nadu getting tertiary healthcare facility is a major development. These medical college hospitals will have dedicated departments for cardiology and other streams, while super speciality care will also be available for people who come there,” Dr J Amalorpavanathan, member of the State Planning Commission, told DH.

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