The Malda district hospital: Ball starts rolling for greater status. Picture by Surajit Roy

Aug. 19: The state cabinet has appointed a principal for the upcoming medical college in Malda and has selected 10 members as its faculty.

In another step towards the expansion of medical education in the state, a three-member health ministry team visited the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital in Siliguri to inspect the existing infrastructure and staffing pattern before recommending upgrade of some disciplines to the post-graduate level from the 2011-12 session.

Speaking over the phone from Calcutta, state environment minister Sailen Sarkar, who is also the CPM MLA from Malda and was present at yesterday’s cabinet meeting in Writers’ Buildings, said the government wanted to start the medical college from the next academic year and would admit 100 students.

“The assistant superintendent of SSKM Hospital, Debashis Bhattacharya, will be the first principal of the medical college. The state government has decided that the two other medical colleges in Murshidabad and North 24-Parganas will also have hundred seats each,” the minister said.

Malda district magistrate Pramal Kumar Samanta said he had already given instructions to set aside a room at the circuit house for the new principal.

The architects have finished designing the college building that would cost Rs 300 crore, principal secretary of health, Manabendranath Roy, had said during his visit here on August 13.

He said the government wanted to create new infrastructure before a team from the Medical Council of India came for an inspection.

In Siliguri, B.B. Thakural, who headed the team from Delhi, said the NBMCH tour was part of a survey to inspect the prevailing infrastructure and assess the shortages.

“The Union ministry of health and family welfare has decided to allocate funds to the hospitals and medical colleges to upgrade infrastructure and install new machinery and instruments so that the departments can be upgraded to the PG level,” said Thakural. Supriya Gupta and S.P. Sharma were the other members of the team which arrived in Siliguri yesterday.

“We will submit our report on the infrastructure and funds required to upgrade the different departments before the Board of Governors (of the health ministry) in Delhi,” Thakural said before leaving.

At present there are 20 departments at the NBMCH and 11 of them offer post-graduate courses. Seven more are being considered for upgrade to the PG level. “Although we have proposed PG studies in ophthalmology and ENT, the team took stock of the departments of psychology, micro-biology, bio-chemistry, radio-therapy and thermocology. They have recommended that we increase the staff in some of these disciplines,” said NBMCH principal J.B. Saha.

“The team will recommend upgrading wherever necessary. The central government will provide 75 per cent of the funds while the state government’s contribution will be 25 percent. The PG courses will start from the 2011-2012 academic session,” he added.