Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Nod for institute of medical education

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Cabinet on Friday cleared the Health Department’s proposal to establish a State Institute of Medical Education and Technology (SIMET) to promote paramedical education in the government sector.

Addressing a press conference here, Health Minister P.K. Sreemathy said the SIMET would be an autonomous institution under the government modelled after the Institute of Human Resource Development and Engineering and the Lal Bahadhur Shastri Institute of Science and Technology. In the first phase, the institute would establish three nursing colleges at Malampuzha in Palakkad, Uduma in Kasaragod and Palluruthi in Ernakulam. The new colleges would utilise the facilities available at near-by district and taluk hospitals. The institute would start B.Sc. nursing courses this year after receiving the approval of the Indian Nursing Council. Salomi George, Deputy Director of Nursing Education, has been appointed the Project Officer for setting up the colleges.

The Health Minister will be the chairperson of the 21-member Governing Body, with the Health Secretary as vice-chairman. The government will later nominate subject experts and representatives of various connected institutions. The executive committee, headed by the Health Secretary, will be in charge of the day-to-day affairs. The posts of Director, Registrar, and Academic Director will be created later. The Medical Education Director would hold temporary charge of administration said.

She said the LDF government had established two nursing colleges in the government sector, but it could not take the additional financial burden of establishing more such colleges. The Minister said that more nursing colleges and paramedical training institutions would be established in other districts. Professional paramedical courses in Ayurveda and Homoeopathy would also be established, in addition to courses in modern medicine, medical technology and hospital administration. The SIMET’s corpus would come from government grants and Central schemes. The decision would be a breakthrough because nursing and paramedical professional institutions have been sanctioned only in the private sector for the last many years, she said.

The Cabinet also cleared a proposal to promulgate an ordinance to ensure service quota in Medical postgraduate admissions. It had been decided to implement the service quota on the basis of seniority norms for PG admissions as soon as the ordinance received Presidential approval.

She said the Supreme Court verdict in 2003 had forced the government to end the practice of earmarking a quota of seats for government doctors. Doctors and other organisations have been urging the State to restore this provision. The Centre had cleared the proposed bill after protracted discussions in the presence of Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar. She said 40 per cent of the seats for PG courses had been earmarked for serving doctors. Of this, 20 per cent of the seats were reserved for Medical College lecturers and 20 per cent for government doctors. She hoped to introduce the new system before the June 10, the last date fixed for admissions by the Supreme Court.

Ms. Sreemathy said the Cabinet has also given approval to the agreement between the Health Department and the KGMOA leading to the withdrawal of their strike.

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