Land issue stalls Ramnad med college

A government medical college will come up in the State’s coastal district of Ramanathapuram, although the issue of identifying the required land has stalled plans, the Director of Medical Education said on Saturday.

Speaking on the sidelines of a function at the School of Nursing, Government headquarters hospital in Ramanathapuram, Director A Edwin Joe said the government has a system for establishing a medical college in a district every year. Realising the importance, the State government had already chosen Ramanathapuram and the Nilgiris to set up medical colleges. However, as the required land to set up such an institution was not identified in these districts, it could not proceed with plans, the director said.

Subsequently shifting its focus to Karur, the new government medical college there would begin functioning from the current year with an intake of 150 students in the MBBS programme, Dr. Joe added.

While Dr. Joe said it’s not an easy task to establish a medical college soon, he added that 23 government medical colleges are functioning in various districts of the State, which stands high a number when compared in the national level.

Referring to the ‘skill lab’ at the nursing school which he inaugurated, Dr. Joe said students pursuing nursing course would be provided with adequate skills training.

Since the particular school in the district was identified as a ‘Model School of Nursing’, the skill lab was hence set up in Ramanathapuram. Similar facility would come up in other nursing schools too in the State in a phased manner, the director added.