Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has set a target to double the number of MBBS seats in its medical colleges across the state in 5 years.
Stating this at the conclave of a vernacular daily in Bhubaneswar on Saturday, Health Minister Mukesh Mahaling said the government has planned to increase the present 2,500 MBBS seats in the medical colleges in the state to 5,000 in next five years.
Elaborating on the government’s plans to strengthen the health services, the Minister said fresh recruitments would be made to fill up the vacancies in doctors posts. “The government has initiated measures to recruit 5,000 doctors and 3,000 health staff very soon,” he added.
Besides, steps were being taken to launch post-graduation courses at all newly established medical colleges and increase the number of beds to 400 in each District Headquarters Hospital, he said.
Stating that the government set up its fourth medical college after a gap of 60 years, he said now the state has 11 such colleges. “The BJP government at the Centre has introduced a policy to open a government medical college in each district of the country with 60:40 cost sharing with the states. We are going to fully utilise the police and boost the medical infrastructure in our state,” he added.