New Delhi/Puri, Apr 11 (PTI) Shri Jagannath Medical College and Hospital in Puri will play a pivotal role in training doctors and providing good medical facilities to people, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said after inaugurating it along with Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday.

Mandaviya interacted with medical students of the inaugural batch and motivated them to work hard and serve in the remotest corners of the country so that healthcare can reach to the last mile, the Health Ministry said in a statement.

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The health minister highlighted that the vision of New India as envisaged by the prime minister is to make healthcare accessible and affordable for all people.

He requested the chief minister to integrate Ayushman Bharat Yojana with the existing state health facilities to further improve the access to healthcare, the statement said.

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Patnaik congratulated the students and informed them that 15 per cent of seats in the medical college are reserved for students from government schools. He noted that “a long dream of establishing a medical college in Puri has been fulfilled today”.

Shri Jagannath Medical College and Hospital is one of the five medical colleges built under Phase I of a scheme for establishment of new medical colleges attached with existing district/referral hospitals.

All the hospitals under the scheme have been built at an approved cost of Rs 945 crore with 60 per cent of the contribution coming from the Union government.

With the inauguration of SJMCH, all five medical colleges have become functional now, the statement said.

Overall, there has been a 55 per cent increase in medical colleges in Odisha from 387 in 2013-14 to 596 in 2020-21, it said.

Under Phases II and III of the scheme, two more hospitals in Jajpur and Kalahandi in Odisha have been approved and the central shares of Rs 150 crore and Rs 100 crore respectively have been released to the state government, the statement stated.

The central and Odisha governments are also working towards increasing MBBS and PG seats in state-run medical colleges, it said.

Under the scheme for upgradation of existing state government/central government medical colleges to increase MBBS seats in the country, an amount of Rs 144 crore has been released by the Centre for increasing 200 MBBS seats in VSS Medical College in Burla and MKCG Medical College in Behrampur.

Similarly, under the scheme for strengthening and up-gradation of government medical colleges for increase of PG seats, a total of 107 seats are proposed to be created in VSS Medical College in Burla, MKCG Medical College in Behrampur and SCB Medical College in Cuttack, the statement said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)