Guwahati, July 14: The Medical Council of India (MCI) has granted recognition to Jorhat Medical College.

This will be the fourth medical college of the state and is being set up after a gap of four decades since Silchar Medical College was established in 1960.

“We received the official letter from the council this morning,” Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, adding that the medical council had given the recognition after inspecting the available infrastructure facilities in the college.

He said the MCI had approved an intake of 100 students in the MBBS course in the new college. “Admission of students will start from tomorrow on the basis of the merit list of combined entrance test (CET) and the academic session will start from September 1,” the minister said.

The foundation stone of Jorhat Medical College was laid by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on August 25, 2008 and its hospital wing was inaugurated by chief minister Tarun Gogoi on October 12, 2009.

Sarma said the medical council had also accorded permission for increasing the number of MBBS seats in Silchar Medical College from 65 to 100.

“Ideally, one new medical college should be set up every 10 years in order to maintain a healthy patient:doctor ratio. Since no new medical college was established in the state in more than 40 years, a big vacuum was created in the health care delivery system,” Sarma said.

As a result, the number of graduate and post-graduate doctors produced by the three medical colleges — the GMCH, the AMCH and the Silchar Medical College — was inadequate to meet the needs of the state. There was an acute shortage of doctors at the health establishments in the primary and secondary sector. There was also a shortage of faculty in the medical colleges.

“At present, Assam needs 7,000 more doctors for its health establishments to fulfil the norms of Indian Public Health Standards,” Sarma said.

He said to overcome the shortage of doctors, the state government has made an “innovative” proposal to the MCI, seeking permission to start evening shifts in the medical colleges in order to increase the intake of students. “Though the MCI has no provision for granting permission for evening shift, we have urged the council to make an exception for Assam considering the problems faced by the state.”

Sarma said the government would also set up four medical colleges, in Tezpur, Barpeta, Nagaon and Diphu.