Chandigarh's GMSH turn into a medical college under PPE mode

The UT Administration is mulling handing over Government Multi-Specialty Hospital (GMSH), Sector 16, to a private player for setting up a medical college under the public-private partnership (PPP) scheme of the Centre. 

We have sought approval from the Centre to upgrade the GMSH-16 to a medical college with 100 MBBS seats. Establishing a medical college under the PPP mode is still a concept. A meeting in this regard is scheduled with the Centre for Tuesday.

The NITI Aayog had unveiled a new plan on the takeover of district government hospitals by private players. Under the plan, new or existing private medical colleges may be linked with functional district hospitals through the PPP mode. Of the total seats in the district hospital, nearly half will be marked as “market beds” and the rest as “regulated beds”. Market beds would have a market price tag and regulated beds would be subsidised.

Under the scheme, the entire infrastructure of a hospital can be handed over to a private player and in exchange, the private player will establish a medical college and operate OPD services.

The UT Health Department had recently submitted a detailed project report to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for establishing a new medical college in the city.

UT Adviser Manoj Parida said they had sought approval from the Centre to upgrade the GMSH-16 to a medical college with 100 MBBS seats.

Establishing a medical college at GMSH-16 under the PPP mode was still a concept, he said, and added that a meeting in this regard was scheduled for tomorrow with the Centre and the decision would be taken accordingly.

On providing a safety net to the employees, Parida said: "In any privatisation plan, exiting service conditions of employees are protected."

At present, the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32, offers 150 MBBS seats and 125 seats for postgraduate (PG) programmes in the city. However, PGI offers only postgraduate programmes with nearly 310 seats.

The 500-bed GMSH is spread over 12 acres in Sector 16. The UT Health Department had sought additional land to set up an academic block, libraries and hostels for the new medical college. Sources said the Administration had even earmarked 15 acres for the medical college in Sarangpur village.

The UT had submitted the documents for affiliation of the proposed medical college with the PU, said sources. As a stopgap arrangement, the Health Department also plans to rope in faculty from the GMCH for various departments, which have not been established at the GMSH but are a requirement for the MBBS course. The GMSH is already offering Diplomate National Board programmes in five specialities.