Health minister rules out checking high fees charged by private medical colleges

Updated on: Thursday, June 21, 2012

Union minister for health and family welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad on Wednesday said stopping private medical colleges from charging high fees from students would hurt the medical sector.

"It costs around Rs 350 crore to set up a medical college. Added to this is the annual recurring cost of around Rs 40-45 crore. Even if a college charges the students in lakh, it can get only up to Rs 15-20 crore a year," the health minister said, justifying the high fee structure in private medical colleges.

Azad said the government had to amend the rules two years ago to change the scenario and improve situation in medical education. "Since then 46 new medical colleges have came up in the country and seats in the MBBS and more so in the PG courses have considerably increased," the health minister said. He added, "If we had depended on the government for the medical colleges, the country would not have had even half the number of doctors we have today."

Azad said India still lacks in adequate medical facilities and the number of doctors in proportion to the population was much less. "The AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) was meant for research work only, but owing to large number of patients it is handling, the doctors there get no time for research," the health minister. The AIIMS's six branches, including the one coming up in Rajasthan's Jodhpur city, would become operational by March 2013, Azad added.
 

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