The recently revamped Cooper Hospital is all set to become the fourth civic-run medical college in Mumbai.
Spread over three acres, it will house an additional 150 MBBS seats. BMC officials informed that they are in the process of applying for essential approval from Medical Council of India (MCI), New Delhi, to expedite the process. Dr Suhasini Nagda, director, Major Hospitals said, "We are applying to the MCI for approvals before August 31. The team will eventually come to Mumbai and inspect the facilities by November."
The medical college will begin functioning with first-year MBBS courses that commence from June 2015. "The first year courses in anatomy, biochemistry, physiology and preventive social medicine will be offered, starting next year," said Dr Nagda. "We will commence interviews for hiring teaching and non-teaching staff for the medical college from next year, Jan onwards. Many BMC non-teaching staff employed with the three medical colleges who stay in the western suburbs have also volunteered to shift to the Cooper Medical College."
The medical college in Cooper Hospital will be the first such institution in the western suburbs. Currently, there are three functional medical colleges run by the BMC – Topiwala Medical National College run along with Nair Hospital in Mumbai Central, Seth Gordhandas Sunderdas Medical College run along with KEM Hospital in Parel and Lokmanya Tilak Medical College run along with Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital in Sion.
While KEM Hospital has 180 MBBS seats, Nair Hospital offers 120 seats and Sion Hospital facilitates up to 100 seats for the MBBS course. Increasing the number of MBBS seats as the BMC hospitals suffer a dearth of doctors was a long-pending demand.
The BMC norm states that the Preventive and Social Medicine department of every medical college must have a rural outreach outpatient department . "Fifty families in the tribal area of Middle Vaitarna do not have any health facilities. We are building a rural health centre attached with Cooper medical college," said Dr Chaturvedi, dean of Cooper Medical College.
Currently, MCI-approved colleges across Maharashtra offer 5,945 MBBS seats in 44 medical colleges.
Seats for MBBS from 2015 onwards in BMC-run medical colleges
Seth GS Medical College and KEM Hospital, Parel: 180
Topiwala National Medical College and Nair Hospital. Mumbai Central: 120
Lokmanya Tilak Municipal Medical College and Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital, Sion: 100
Cooper Medical College, Vile Parle (under construction): 150
Total: 450
Seats for MBBS across Maharashtra in 44 medical colleges currently – 5,945
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