New medical college may come up at GT hospital in Mumbai

On Wednesday, a three-member team from the Medical Council of India visited the GT hospital campus for inspecting the site of the proposed new medical college. According to the state medical education department, if everything goes as per plans, the new college will start functioning from 2012, giving the state more that 100 more MBBS seats annually.

“The state will give money to the college in phases after the inspection,” said Milind Mhaiskar, secretary, state medical education department. Infrastructure is ready for the college, as there is already a building for the institute in the GT hospital campus.

Dr TP Lahane, dean, Sir JJ group of hospitals said, “The officials will take two days for the inspection. Before this inspection, officials from the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences also inspected the premises.”

Last year, state medical education minister Dr Vijaykumar Gavit announced the setting up of three new medical colleges in Mumbai, Alibaug and Nandurbar. Earlier, the department had planned to start the new medical college in the suburbs, but since there is no full-fledged hospital there having 300 beds, the plan did not work out. Hence the proposed medical college was shifted to the city.

There has been a long pending demand for another medical college in the city. The state has one medical college in the city — Grant Medical College; three other medical colleges are run by the civic body.