Imphal: The first ever “homegrown private medical college” in the Northeast India will be set up in Manipur under the aegis of Imphal based Shija Hospitals and Research Institute (SHRI).
National Medical Commission (NMC) former Medical Council of India has given the permission to SHRI to start a new private medical college with 150 student intake capacity per year, according to SHRI chief managing director (CMD) Dr Palin Khundongbam.
SHRI chief made the announcement at a press conference held at the auditorium of the SHRI in Imphal’s Langol today.
He said that the medical college is to be set up at Langol Health village in Imphal West district under the name and style of ‘Shija Academy of Health Sciences (SAHS)’ from the academic session 2021-2022.
NMC has given the permission vided letter no. NMC/UG/2020/000092/032984 issued on November 1, 2021, Dr Palin informed.
Palin claimed that the proposed homegrown medical college is going to be the first ever private college of its kind in the entire northeast region.
Earlier, two such private colleges were there in Sikkim and Tripura. However, both had been converted into semi government and currently functioning on PPP (Public-Private Partnership), he said.
Citing the main purpose of establishing the new medical college, he said that it aimed at to produce strong, empathetic, compassionate, socially and environmentally responsible research-oriented medical graduates and postgraduates for the new era of health sciences, affordable quality healthcare, and medical value tourism to help save the state’s exchequer and inclusive growth of the region.
He said that out of the over 4000 medical aspirants in Manipur alone, only about 150 students are selected as government nominees and over 400 Manipuri students are going outside the state and country for private medical studies per year.
Currently it is estimated that about 700 students of the state Manipur are studying medical courses in China alone, spending approximately over Rs 500 crores outside the state annually for healthcare and medical education.
“The amount will be more if we include the expenditure of dental, nursing, paramedical, and health management studies outside the state,” he claimed.
The proposed medical college will help check draining of states’ exchequer to some extent beside realizing the dream of the state becoming one of the medical tourism destinations of the country, Dr Palin further said.
The proposed private medical college will have an academic block and an independent subsidized 700 bedded teaching hospital which will be constructed within two years.
SHRI has also a plan to have a satellite 100 bedded hospital at Moreh, Manipur’s town at the Indo-Myanmar border to cater the primary and secondary healthcare for the border areas of India and Myanmar.
It is also planning to set up a rural health centre within a 40 km radius of the location of the medical college, he said.
Regarding the mode of seat sharing of the students, he said that SHRI authority had already proposed the seat sharing (state government nominee, Shija management nominee, and Non-Resident Indian) along with the annual fee structures to the state government.
The seat sharing model is based on one of the nearest private medical colleges in Kolkata as there are no full private medical colleges in any of the northeast states so far.
The medical college will not only generate employment but also help the state to develop as one of the global healthcare destinations, the CMD hoped.
SHRI is committed to a world-class healthcare service at an affordable cost to attract domestic as well as global medical tourists, he added.
The private medical college will also provide ample opportunities for capacity building of the local population and can supply the healthcare workforce to developed nations.
The teaching institute will attract both domestic and international students which will help in the generation of foreign exchange that will contribute towards inclusive economic growth of the state, he asserted.
It will also help in the enhancement of goodwill between India and Myanmar and beyond through healthcare, Palin added.
While recalling the SHRI beginning, he said that it began as Shija Clinic, a mono practice attached to a pharmacy at Paona Bazar in 1985.
Now, it is a NABH (Pre Entry) certified 350 bedded (including 60 critical care beds) super specialty hospital supported by 1399 caregivers including 165 full-time doctors, he said.
“It is located at the eco-friendly foothill of Langol, Imphal West. We brand it as Health village, Langol. Shija has a NABL accredited laboratory,” he also said.
The CMD claimed that SHRI was able to stop many patients from going outside the state by bringing more needed facilities in the state.
The hospital played a key role in the detection and treatment of COVID in both the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, he added.
SHRI has set Guinness World Record for successful removal of the largest neck tumor (40% of total body weight) in the world in 2006 and re-implanted eight totally amputated hands and fingers, he informed.
The hospital is a leading brand in kidney and cornea transplantation, keyhole surgery, plastic surgery, interventional radiology, advanced stroke management cardiac science, joint replacement, neurosciences, renal science, gastroenterology, eye care, palliative care, etc., he also said.
Shija is running a Common Biomedical Waste Management in the state, he added.
Asserting that SHRI is one of the empanelled hospitals by CMHT, PMJAY, Palin claimed that it has treated more than 57,000 patients including dialysis under the two schemes of the government.
NNN
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