the goan I network
PANAJI
Health Minister Vishwajit Rane has brought under the State government’s radar a proposal to set up a private medical college which ostensibly will have an already up and running facility in the Hospicio at Margao, the South Goa District Hospital of the government.
“Subsequent to the central govt’s vision to increase no. of medical seats and bed capacity of hospitals, the Govt of Goa has decided to increase bed capacity of South Goa District Hospital to 750-800 beds and construct a medical college to boost the doctor-patient ratio,” a post by Rane on his Twitter handle @visrane said.
Medical colleges whether private or public are required to have an attached hospital with a bed-capacity commensurate with its student intake capacity.
Interestingly, a move to have a private medical college in Goa parallel to the historic Goa Medical College, formerly the first such institution in Asia in its pre-liberation Lusofonic avatar - Escola Medico Cirugica de Goa - was aborted by the then government of Rane’s father Pratapsing Rane in the early 1980s.
The proposal then had kicked up a storm and snowballed into a major agitation launched by student unions in the State, accusing Rane Sr and then education Minister Harish Zantye of promoting private interests by allowing a ‘capitation fee’ based private medical college in Goa.
The present proposal made public by a solitary tweet of the Health Minister however gives away no further details of the plans.
