Nagpur: New Government Medical Colleges in Vidarbha

Bringing good news to the medical aspirants in Maharashtra, five new Government Medical Colleges (GMCs) were inaugurated in the Vidarbha region and were dedicated to the public recently.

These newly established GMCs are in:

• Buldhana
• Washim
• Amravati
• Bhandara
• Gadchiroli

Each of these colleges has received permission for 100 MBBS seats.

With these five new medical colleges, Vidarbha now has 11 government medical colleges with an intake capacity of 1,650 government (state-run) MBBS seats. This, along with the 125 MBBS seats available at AIIMS Nagpur, takes the total number of MBBS seats available in the government medical institutes in the region to 1,775.

Also Read: 75,000 new medical seats in next 5 years: PM Modi

As per the latest media report by the Times of India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually inaugurated these five new medical colleges on Wednesday. Already, there are six existing state-run GMCs available in the region. These include the government medical colleges at:

• Akola
• Yavatmal
• Chandrapur
• Gondia
• Two GMCs in Nagpur

With the inauguration of these five new GMCs, now all the district headquarters in Vidarbha, excluding Wardha, have a government medical college. In the case of Wardha, there already exists the trust-run Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (MGIMS), which is the first rural medical college in the country. Apart from this, Wardha also has a private medical college, i.e., Datta Meghe Medical College.

Nagpur also has two private medical colleges, and there is one private medical institute in Amravati. Private Medical Colleges in Vidarbha also contribute to the region's medical education capacity, offering around 300 MBBS seats.

Taking all these medical seats into consideration, the Vidarbha region has more than 2,000 MBBS seats. As per the experts in the field, this development has some short-term as well as long-term benefits.

Commenting on the issue, the Dean of GMCH Bhandara, Dr. Vipul Ambade told TOI, "While the newly established GMCs may not have their own hospitals or buildings immediately, they will still provide significant benefits to patients...These colleges will initially function from existing district hospitals, allowing MBBS students and their faculty to contribute to patient care and improve healthcare services in the region."

The Daily has reported that these colleges will get their own buildings and hospitals in the future and in the coming two to three years, the GMCs will be equipped with 400 to 450-bed hospitals. With this, the districts will get full-fledged medical facilities.

Already 25 acres of land has been allocated in Bhandara for the medical college at Paladi village and Amravati has also secured land near Nandgaonpeth. Initially, the GMCs at Washim and Buldhana will operate from the district hospitals, which have been taken over by the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER).

On the other hand, the GMC Gadchiroli will operate from the state-of-the-art regional hospital. All these colleges will be attached to the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS).

Also Read: Altogether 1,12,112 MBBS, 72,267 PG Medical Seats across 731 Medical Colleges in India: MoS Health in Parliament