SHILLONG, MAY 18: The Shillong Medical College is likely to be made functional by September 2025 and the Tura Medical College by 2026-2027.
This was informed by the health minister Ampareen Lyngdoh after attending a review meeting chaired by the chief minister Conrad K Sangma on the institutionalising of the medical colleges in the state of Meghalaya, on Friday.
Lyngdoh will also soon take a trip to Uttar Pradesh to study a model in which the government of India had assisted the state government there in setting up six medical colleges.
Speaking to reporters, Lyngdoh said, “We have taken a review of the Tura medical college. We expect it to be likely operational sometime by 2026-2027. We are still working on a lot of infrastructure development because it is very necessary.”
“We have a certain proposal at hand. We are of course going ahead with the constructions. Some of the infrastructures are at very good progress. Recently, there were certain hurdles with regards to the fast tracking of the infrastructure buildings, those have also been sorted out as Chief Minister at his level took a meeting with line departments like PHE, power and PWD so all of those difficulties have also been attended to,” she said.
As far as Shillong medical college is concerned, the minister said, “we are ahead and progressing rapidly. If everything goes right, Shillong medical college should be functional by September 2025.”
She also informed that there are so many technicalities which has to be fast tracked.
“We need to look at the building of our own faculty. We have to look at important issues such as the service rules, the amendment of service rules of doctors, so that we ensure that eligible doctors are on board and our service rules permits us to allow doctors to function as teaching doctors. So the government of India has a model for teaching and non-teaching doctors. There is a model for retirement and for everything, so we are now going to be looking at this detail as well,” Lyngdoh said.
The minister said that the NMC still has to come for the inspection and conduct the details of the proposed medical college in Shillong.
“Affiliation issues are also likely to be handled because we have the Captain Williamson Sangma State University now, we have actually engaged with the NEHU but it is taking very long time. So we are going to look for an option of affiliation with the state owned university,” she informed. She added “in fact, we have had several consultations with doctors already in the system and we will have to open out expression of interests to doctors especially we are told from the military background, there are doctors, who have just recently retired, who are eligible for teaching.”
Asserting the need to talk less and act more, the minister said, “The CM is going to discuss these matters with the Government of India, we will await for the new government formation and as soon as that stabilizes, then we should be able to give you better information but just to keep you abreast on our plans for our own medical colleges, we want to assure the people of Meghalaya that we are sincerely on the job and it looks like we will be able to get a medical college, if everything goes as planned by next year, 2025 session.”
On the status of the proposed setting up of a medical college in USTM, Ri Bhoi district, the minister said, “ well there is quick progress of the PA Sangma International hospital that is a PPP model. There are some possibility that also will become operational very soon but the technical signing of MoUs and other arrangements are now being made. We will keep you abreast once we have specific information to share with the public but there also we have a high probability of having a medical college as close as Khanapara.”
According to her, the government will be handholding the project for a specific number of years.
“That model is yet to be fully developed and MoUs still need to be signed. Right now we are presuming things let the official actually get a clear picture and once that picture is clear we can share so that there no shoddy information being given to the public but dialogue is on, determination is there and possibility is very rare. Seat sharing for students of our own state is where we will benefit the most,” she added.
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