Bengaluru: The Karnataka state government has identified 11 districts that do not have government medical colleges at present and plans to establish 11 new medical colleges under Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) model in 11 districts that do. As of now, the State has 22 government medical colleges in 22 districts while 11 others have no government medical colleges. To fill this gap, the government has now proposed to open medical colleges in PPP mode in Tumakuru, Davangere, Chitradurga, Bagalkote, Kolar, Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Bengaluru Rural, Vijayapura, Vijayanagara and Ramanagara districts.
Speaking to The Hindu, Minister for Medical Education Sharan Prakash Patil said, “To improve medical infrastructure, health facilities for the rural people and giving more opportunity in medical education to rural residents, poor and meritorious students, the State government is committed to starting a government medical college in every district. There are no government medical colleges in 11 districts of the state. But the Finance Department has not given permission to start new medical colleges in these. So, we are planning to start medical colleges under the PPP model in these districts.” “A private organisation has been tasked to study and report on starting medical colleges under the PPP model. A meeting has already taken place in this regard. An appropriate decision will be taken after receiving the complete report. However, 11 colleges cannot be started at once and it will begin with two to three colleges per year,” Dr. Patil said.