The Meghalaya Cabinet has approved the Meghalaya Health Service Academic Rules, 2024, a crucial move toward the establishment of the Shillong Medical College, Health Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh confirmed on Wednesday. The new rules will facilitate the recruitment of faculty members, a critical step in ensuring the medical college meets its planned operational timeline.
Speaking to reporters, Health Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh explained that the establishment of service rules was essential to operationalize the medical college within the targeted time frame. “For the department of health to start making sure that we operationalize the medical college in the targeted time frame, we had to come up with service rules for the recruitment of faculty to run the medical college.” she said.
Lyngdoh expressed her satisfaction with the progress, stating, ” “We were happy to do that and now we go ahead and go to the next stage to prepare for the operationalization of the Shillong medical college at the earliest,”
The minister added that the department has already tendered the various construction components needed to establish the medical college. However, she noted some challenges regarding affiliation, stating, “We are already looking at affiliation; there’s a bit of a snag there, but we are going ahead, we are looking at option B and option C. We have said that we would prefer to see that it becomes operational in academic year 2025-2026.”
Asked about the status of the college, Lyngdoh clarified, “It has nothing to do with PA Sangma. This is our own State Medical College. State Medical College requires state service rules and like every other component of governance you cannot recruit, you cannot go ahead if you do not have a service rule in position.
She emphasized that the government is focused on the operationalization of the state-run Shillong Medical College, distinct from private institutions like USTM. “As far as USTM is concerned, we have already made public the details of the operationalization of private medical colleges.”
The minister also mentioned that the government anticipates few complications in launching the Shillong Medical College, citing the availability of in-house doctors who may qualify to join the faculty. “We already have in house doctors who are likely going to be able to enter into this service. So, we have a readymade faculty of course not all of the faculty will be eligible from within our own systems. We have also ensure that in the cabinet note we are guided from time to time, from year to years so that as and when we have faculty from within our own system, it is called the lateral system,” she stated.
She further explained that the process would allow for a lateral system to be established for future faculty recruitment and higher administrative positions.
The initial expenditure for the establishment of the Shillong Medical College is estimated at Rs 16 crore.
Regarding the Tura Medical College, Lyngdoh expressed optimism but called for more time to address some pending issues. “In Tura also, we are hopeful that we will be able to operationalize it at the earliest, but I require a little bit of time because there are a few modalities that need to be worked out,” she said. She assured the public that the government is equally committed to operationalizing the Tura Medical College but emphasized the need for a step-by-step approach. “We cannot make too many promises which will not be achieved. Let us begin by telling the public that this is now likely going to happen,” she said.
The minister also mentioned efforts to modernize the Civil Hospital in Tura, highlighting the need for additional land from the government to create state-of-the-art learning and teaching facilities. “We have asked the government for more land to make the civil hospital a more modernized building. We need to look at land to be given to us so that we can utilize these funds efficiently and make sure we have state-of-the-art learning and teaching facilities,” Lyngdoh said.