MN Roy (left) at the Malda district hospital on Tuesday. Picture by Surajit Roy

Malda, June 8: The state health department cannot apply to the Medical Council of India for approval to set up a medical college in Malda because of “inadequate” infrastructure, a senior official today said.

Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, during his visit here about a month ago to inaugurate an industrial training institute, had said the government had plans to set up a medical college in Malda. He, however, had said Kalyani in Nadia district would get a medical college first.

Today, state health secretary M.N. Roy visited the Malda district hospital to gather first-hand knowledge of the condition of the various departments, the operation theatres, the outpatients’ ward and the staff quarters.

Talking to reporters after the tour, Roy said Malda had a 700-bed hospital that fulfilled the criterion for setting up a medical college. “However, since the infrastructure is inadequate, we are trying to build some more to set up the medical college. But at the moment we cannot apply to the Medical Council of India for approval to set up a medical college here.”

He, however, did not specify the infrastructure required at the district hospital.

Chief medical officer of health of Malda Srikanta Roy said the health department had asked him to send details of land available with the department around the hospital. According to the MCI specifications, a medical college has to come up on land not less than 25 acres.

“The area of the hospital campus is 22 acres and falls just short of the requirement. However, on May 23 we had sent a report with the details of the land available with the department in and around the town,” Srikanta Roy said.

The health secretary said permission had been granted to set up a hospital in Chanchol subdivision.

He admitted that there was a shortage of medical staff in the district. “This is true for the entire state. There is a shortage of 1,800 to 2,000 doctors all over the state and we are trying to recruit them directly from the medical colleges on contractual basis. We had asked for 400 specialists from the public service commission and we have been promised that the recruitment will be made this year,” Roy said.