PANAJI
The Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) has approached Goa University seeking permission to establish an affiliated medical college at the ESI Hospital premises in Margao, with an initial intake capacity of 50 MBBS seats.
If approved, the proposed institution will become the second government medical college in the State after the Goa Medical College (GMC), one of the oldest medical institutions in the country. GMC currently has an intake capacity of 200 MBBS seats, of which 85 per cent are reserved under the State quota.
Confirming the development, Goa University Registrar Sunder Dhuri told The Goan that the University has received the proposal from ESIC and the process for granting permission-cum-affiliation is currently underway.
“As per the proposal, ESIC intends to start a medical college at its hospital in Margao. ESIC has already established around 75 such medical colleges across the country and is keen to set up one in Goa as well,” Dhuri said.
He added that once the institution secures all statutory clearances, as mandated by the National Medical Commission (NMC), admissions could commence as and when they want.
“Our role is to ensure that all requirements for affiliation are fulfilled before granting approval,” he said.
ESIC presently operates medical colleges at its hospital facilities in cities including Bengaluru, Chennai, Faridabad, Jaipur, Noida and Varanasi among others.
The proposal was initially mooted by the State government last year and was awaiting approval from the Centre. With the project now receiving the green signal, the medical college will be managed by ESIC, while the State government plans to provide additional land to enable future expansion of both academic and hospital infrastructure.
As reported earlier, the college will begin with 50 MBBS seats, with 50 per cent reserved for Goan students. With the NMC currently capping approvals at 150 seats per medical college, GMC has reached its maximum permissible intake and cannot expand further without major infrastructure augmentation.
The State government had earlier explored the option of setting up a private medical college in South Goa to reduce travel time to GMC and ease the growing load of patients and students. However, the proposal to establish the facility at the new South Goa District Hospital was later dropped following opposition.
