NEW DELHI: Come 2012 academic session and the medical colleges of the six AIIMS-like institutions will be open to undergraduate medical education (MBBS). The construction of the six medical colleges — each with 100 MBBS seats — will be completed in August. However, the super-speciality hospitals, which are being built along with the colleges will be completed by 2012. They will be functional from the next year. In total, each AIIMS-like institution has been built at nearly Rs 847 crore, up from Rs 332 crore that was originally estimated.

Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said on Wednesday: "The medical colleges in the six AIIMS-like institutions will start operating from the next year. The super-speciality hospitals will follow."  He added: "More than $2.5 billion will be spent in the next 2-3 years to establish six state-of-art tertiary care institutions modelled on the lines of our premier institute All India Institute of Medical Sciences in the under-developed and under-served regions of the country."
Around 94 eminent scientists, doctors and academicians have applied for the posts of directors in these six institutes. A health ministry's search-and-selection panel is finalizing the names of six directors from these aspirants' list. The colleges are located at Patna, Raipur, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Jodhpur and Rishikesh under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY).

"Constructing the medical colleges took 15-18 months. Civil work will end by August-September. There will be 600 additional MBBS seats. The hospitals will be ready next year. Each will have 960 beds, including 500 beds for the medical college hospital, 300 beds for speciality/super speciality and 100 beds for ICU/accident trauma,"an official said. In the second phase of PMSSY, the government has also approved setting up of two more such institutions.Union health secretary K Chandramouli told TOI that "the present schedule is to admit MBBS students from 2012. The hospital will be ready a year later."

source: TOI