Govt to decide on model to apply for setting up of Shillong medical college: Ampareen

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaJune 19, 2023

Health Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh on Monday informed that the department is preparing a note to be placed before the state Cabinet on what would be the best model to apply in the Shillong medical college.

Addressing the media, Lyngdoh said, “Certain ideas are now being mooted. There are two versions of these ideas. One is a complete PPP model which anyways we can engage with private parties or the other as to whether or not it is possible to also initiate some sort of a coordination between available services of the government within either the city of Shillong or some places near the city of Shillong whether or not we can have a medical college that will utilize the Shillong civil hospital, Ganesh Das hospital, the Reid Chest hospital, whether or not we can convert these institutions into learning institutions where a medical college can actually emerged out of the availability facilities that we have in the state. That is one thing.”

Lyngdoh further informed that the department is also looking at the idea of partnering with universities likely within the Ri Bhoi district for setting up of the medical college.

“We are also looking at the idea of partnering with the university that is already functioning well in the state of Meghalaya likely within the Ri Bhoi district where there are many private universities that are already functioning whether or not anyone of these universities can partner with us on a PPP mode. That is as far as the Khasi-Jaintia Hills region is concerned,” she said.

Meanwhile, the minister informed that the status of the Tura medical college is good in progress.

“I have already been given an update and I will be shortly travelling to Tura to ensure that we speed up the facilities that will have to be put up for the medical college to be fully functioning. There are certain norms that have to be adhered to as per MCI norms and other norms. Once we cover all of that and once the infrastructure is already put in place, I don’t perceive or I don’t anticipate the Tura medical college should take much more time,” she said.

“We don’t know really, we don’t want to commit in case we cannot meet these targets but the one great message that the people of Garo Hills must know is that we are working hard to ensure that the Tura medical college starts functioning at the earliest,” she further added.

Lyngdoh also said that she recently had an interesting exchange of ideas with the Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on the model of setting up medical colleges in Assam.

She said Assam is using every medical facility in different districts and upgrading them to medical colleges as they already covered a lot of the norms that are required for a fully functional medical college.

“We hope that Meghalaya can go on ahead like the state of Assam. If Assam can do it so can the state of Meghalaya,” she said