By Prashant K. Nanda, IANS
New Delhi : Fortis Healthcare, a leading private health service provider in the country, will set up six medical colleges in as many states with an investment of approximately Rs.10 billion.
“We are setting up six medical colleges and they will cater to the lower end of the social pyramid,” Shivinder Mohan Singh, CEO and managing director of Fortis Healthcare, told IANS here Monday.
Daljit Singh, president (strategy and organisational development) of Fortis, said they were negotiating with the states for land not less than 50 acres at one place.
“I think the investment on these medical colleges would be around Rs.10 billion. The medical colleges will be run under a new trust,” Daljit Singh said.
Elaborating on the mega plan, C.M. Bhasin, chief executive (projects and consultancy) of the company, said they were in talks with six states for this initiative.
“We are in talks with Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. We are ready to start the educational hubs as soon as we get a go ahead from the state governments,” Bhasin told IANS.
“Talks are in an advance stage with Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Gujarat. They (colleges) will provide not only postgraduate degrees but will also have facility for higher studies.
“The medical college will have a 500-bed hospital for the treatment of patients and hands-on practice for our students as well. Apart from the regular course, we will have a nursing training school, a technician training school and a bio-medical centre,” Bhasin added.
Though the proposed colleges will be operational within 10 years, those at Ahmedabad (Gujarat), Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) and Gurgaon (Haryana) may come up first.
Bhasin said that thee medical colleges would provide “unique courses that will fulfil the contemporary demand” of our country.
“We will have courses like Bio Kinetics, which will help sportspersons recover fast. I just saw this in a medical college in South Africa and have decided to start here.
“How many colleges have course for producing dialysis technicians? I think, there are two dozen technical courses relevant to our time, which are required in India. Since we are coming up with a number of super-speciality hospitals across the country, these medical colleges will help us in getting the manpower,” he added.
Fortis has currently 12 hospitals under its umbrella.
Speaking about the Medical Council of India (MCI) permission, Bhasin said: “We are following the MCI regulations and once we are ready with all the required permissions from the state governments and local civic authorities, we will give a presentation to MCI on it.”