Booster Dose For UP?s Medical Infra

 

 

 

 

Fighting against the Covid pandemic in the last 14 months, the country and governments across India have realised the dire need of accessible high quality medical infrastructure and need for trained medical practitioners like never before. As soon as Shri Yogi Adityanath took over the oath of office, he knew that law and order and health infrastructure in the state were in shambles. The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister had the cognisance that creating medical infrastructure, upgrading medical facilities and training medical practitioners is not a one-day task. So he started off from day one.

 

 

When Yogi Adityanath became Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in 2017, only 15 out 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh had functioning medical colleges or institutes. Yogi gave the steep target of One district One Medical College to his team. Yogi and his team strategically divided the task in four phases and what has been achieved in the last 4.5 years is impressive. Let me take you through all the four phases.

 

In the phase one of its mission, the Yogi government took the seven medical college structures built by the previous government and made them functioning. That required equipping them with all the required medical equipments, hiring doctors, professors and other required medical staff and obtaining the regulatory clearances from Medical Council of India (MCI) for teaching the MBBS and allied courses.

 

In the first phase, medical college structures built by previous governments in the districts of Ayodhya, Basti, Bahraich, Firozabad and Shahjahanpur were activated and operationalised.

 

Six cancer institutes in Lucknow were also operationalised – Linear Accelerators, X-Rays and equipment procured, doctors appointed, and first OPD and later IPD was also started along with the medical college. Additionally Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Science (Dr. RMLIMS), which catered to post graduate (PG) students was opened for under graduate (UG) MBBS students also. Phase one of the Yogi government added almost 700 MBBS seats to the state of Uttar Pradesh.

 

 

In phase-two, eight district hospitals were taken up for upgradation from district hospitals to medical colleges. Academic blocks and hospital upgradation in these eight districts have reached the Letter of Permission (LOP) 1 stage and applications have been filed for National Medical Commission (NMC) inspection and clearance. This implies that the necessary construction work required for teaching the first two years of pre-clinical courses in MBBS is complete. These 8 new medical colleges are in Deoria, Eta, Fatehpur, Gazipur, Hardoi, Mirzapur, Pratapgarh and Siddhartha Nagar. Additionally the medical college at Jaunpur , which was sanctioned by the previous government and was languishing has also been taken up and is likely to be functional by August-2021.

 

The construction work for taking the LOP1 permission from MCI is over in all the medical colleges in these nine districts and pre-clinical departments (micro-biology, biochemistry, anatomy, physiology etc) can be started now and as per the MCI procedure, And after 2 years second Letter of Permission (LOP2) will be taken for starting clinical departments (Gynecology, Surgery, Medicine etc). Moreover the government has sanctioned the requisite number of doctors, nurses and para-medical staff to ensure that the undergraduate MBBS teaching can start in the academic session of 2021-22. These 9 colleges will add almost 900-1000 more MBBS seats in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

 

In phase three of the One District One Medical College mission of the Yogi government, a new set of medical colleges have been planned in 14 more districts. These districts are – Kanpur Dehat, Kaushambi, Chandauli, Bulandshahr, Orai, Kushi Nagar, Gonda, Pilibhit, Bijnor, Lakheempur Khiri, Sultanpur, Lalitpur, Sohanbhadra and Amethi.

 

In almost all of these 14 districts land is identified, finance committee approval has been taken, cabinet approvals are taken, tenders floated on EPC mode on fixed time and fixed price arrangement to enable the work to be over on time and within the budget. In 13 districts environmental clearance, local body clearance, demolition clearance for any existing old structure taken, contractors are finalised and construction is mobilized on the ground. Only in Amethi the cabinet approval is awaited.

 

Earlier UP used contractual mode for its construction work, which has scope of delays and cost overruns. The new contracts are executed on fixed price and fixed time mode. So by next year these 14 medical colleges will be ready, and will get LOP1 permission from MCI and will add 1300-1400 more MBBS seats for the state of Uttar Pradesh.

 

 

In phase four, the Yogi government has targeted the unserved districts, where there are neither private nor government medical colleges. The Yogi government has identified 16 unserved districts and in the latest budget, announced plans to build medical colleges in these 16 unserved districts under public private partnership (PPP). The Yogi government will also utilise the scheme of Government of India (GoI), where GOI provides 30 per cent capital subsidy to the private entrepreneur to partner in PPP mode for the medical college project in the remote unserved areas.

 

The Yogi government is also working on Atal Bihari Vajpayee Medical University, Lucknow which will later regulate the curriculum, examination and academic norms in all the medical colleges of Uttar Pradesh, the same way as Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University (APJAKTU) is an umbrella body for all the engineering and technical education colleges in Uttar Pradesh.

 

One must be surprised with such absolute clarity of thought and vision in UP CM Yogi Adityanath for Medical Care and Public Health, which otherwise is considered a complex and nuanced topic. If you dive into his life before becoming the Chief Minister, you will get the answer. Yogi Adityanath administered large scale medical facilities like 350+ bedded Guru Shri Gorakshdham Hospital, Guru Shri Gorakshnath School of Nursing and a large Guru Shri Gorakshnath Blood Bank as part of Mahant of Gorakhnath Mutt.

 

As a member of Parliament, he has raised multiple questions on Japanese Encephalitis, child malnutrition, demand for AIIMS-Gorakhpur and other public health related topics. In a recent interview with ex-Director of AIIMS-Delhi, Dr MC Mishra said that Yogi Adityanath is an expert public health professional and he is instrumental in drastic reduction in Japanese Encephalitis cases in eastern Uttar Pradesh.