PM Modi to inaugurate 9 new medical colleges in UP today to improve public health sector

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate nine medical colleges and several developmental projects in Uttar Pradesh today, October 25 at around 10:30 am. According to a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office, PM Modi will inaugurate all the medical colleges virtually from Siddharthnagar. Meanwhile, the PM will also launch the Pradhan Mantri Atmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana (PMASBY) in his Lok Sabha constituency, Varanasi at around 1:15 pm.

PM Modi is also set to inaugurate various development projects worth more than Rs 5200 crore for Varanasi. Through PMASBY, the government aims to fill critical gaps in public health infrastructure, including critical care facilities and primary care. The developmental projects will be launched in both the urban and rural areas.

According to reports, Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Dr Mansukh Mandaviya will be present at the event. The medical colleges to be inaugurated by PM Modi are in nine different districts of Uttar Pradesh: Siddharthnagar, Etah, Hardoi, Pratapgarh, Fatehpur, Deoria, Ghazipur, Mirzapur, and Jaunpur. Notably, the central government has sanctioned eight medical colleges under the centrally sponsored scheme for the "establishment of new medical colleges attached to district/referral hospitals".

PM Narendra Modi to inaugurate medical colleges in UP

The central government is looking towards offering more access to the public health sector by setting up diagnostic services in the public healthcare system, setting up laboratories across the country, and integrating public health labs across all the districts. According to the central government's scheme, a national institution for health, 4 new national institutions for virology, along with a regional research platform for the WHO Southeast Asia Region, 9 biosafety level-III laboratories, and 5 new regional national centres for disease control will be established by the government.

The central scheme aims to give preference to underserved, backward, and aspirational districts. This scheme aims to enhance the health sector of the state by increasing the availability of doctors, nurses, and staff, correcting the geographical imbalance in the distribution of medical colleges, and utilizing the infrastructure of district hospitals. Notably, under the three phases of a scheme launched by the NDA government, a total of 157 new medical colleges have already been approved, out of which 63 medical colleges are already functioning across the nation, informed the PMO.

Image: ANI