Stating that once in a lifetime COVID-19 pandemic has reaffirmed the importance of the health sector, Prime Minister Narendra Mmodi said that the future will belong to societies that invest in healthcare.
Inaugurating 11 new medical colleges and a new campus of Central Institute of Classical Tamil (CICT) in Tamil Nadu today through video conference, he government has brought many reforms in the sector.
He pointed out that shortage of doctors had remained an issue for a very long time and the current government made it a priority to address this critical gap. He informed that in 2014, the country had 387 medical colleges. In the last seven years only, this number has gone up to 596 medical colleges.
This is an increase of 54%. In 2014, India had around 82 thousand medical Undergraduate and Postgraduate seats. In the last seven years, this number has gone up to around 1 lakh 48 thousand seats. This is an increase of about 80%. In 2014, there were only seven AIIMS in the country. But after 2014, the number of AIIMS approved has increased to 22.
The Prime Minister pointed out that by inaugurating 11 medical colleges in one go in Tamil Nadu, he, in a way, broke his own record when he recently inaugurated 9 medical colleges in Uttar Pradesh. He expressed happiness that by establishing colleges in two aspirational districts of Ramanathapuram and Virudhunagar along with one in hilly district of the Nilgiris, regional imbalance is being addressed.
Thanks to Ayushman Bharat, the poor have access to top quality and affordable healthcare. The cost of knee implants and stents have become one-third of what it was. He also informed that by providing sanitary napkins at the cost of 1 rupee, healthy lifestyle among the women will be furthered.
The Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Infrastructure Mission aims to address the critical gaps in health infrastructure and health research especially at District level. A support of over Rupees three thousand crore would be provided to Tamil Nadu in the next five years.
This will help in establishing/ Urban Health & Wellness Centres, District Public Health labs and Critical Care Blocks across the state, the Prime Minister said. In the coming years, “I envision India as being the go-to destination for quality and affordable care, he remarked. India has everything needed to be a hub for medical tourism. I say this based on the skills of our doctors”, he said. He urged the medical fraternity to look at telemedicine as well.
The new medical colleges are being established at an estimated cost of about Rs 4000 crore, out of which around Rs 2145 crore has been provided by the Union government and rest by the Tamil Nadu government. The districts in which the new Medical Colleges are being established are Virudhunagar, Namakkal, The Nilgiris, Tiruppur, Thiruvallur, Nagapattinam, Dindigul, Kallakurichi, Ariyalur, Ramanathapuram and Krishnagiri.
Union Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya, Dr L Murugan and Dr Bharati Pawar, Chief Minister Tamil Nadu Thiru M.K.Stalin were present on the occasion.
