Dr. Palin Khundongbam, Chairman and Managing Director of Shija Hospitals and Research Institute (SHRI) said that Manipur will introduce the first ever private medical college to provide medical facilities to the people of the region.
While addressing a press conference on Sunday, Dr. Khundongbam said that the objective was to produce strong, emphatic, compassionate, socially and environmentally responsible research-oriented medical professionals for the new era of healthcare services in the region.
The Director, Dr. M Amuba and the board of directors of SAHS, Dr. Jugindra Sorokhaibam, Bonney Devi S and Gayatri Maibam and Medical Superintendent Kaushik Debnath were also present in the press conference.
Dr. Khundongbam said that the new medical college in Manipur, will function under the name Shija Academy of Health Sciences (SAHS), adding that there is a demand of more than 10,000 doctors in the region considering the WHO recommendation of doctor to population ratio of 1:1000.
There are currently 35,396 registered doctors in the entire northeast which has around 16 medical colleges, 8 in Assam and 2 each in Manipur and Tripura.
According to him, an estimated 700 Manipuri students are studying medical courses in China alone and only 150 students out of over 4000 medical aspirants in the state are selected as government nominees and more than 400 students from the state go out of the state and country to study medical courses every year.
He further said that the approximate annual expenditure on healthcare and medical education crossed 500 crores, which would be more if expenditure of dental, nursing, paramedical and other health management studies outside the state is taken into account.
There will be an academic block and an independent subsidised 700 bedded teaching hospital which will be constructed within 2 years, in the newly built SAHS.
The SHRI, which was a clinic attached to a pharmacy when it was started 36 years ago, now serves as a government empanelled 350 bedded super speciality hospital. It employs 1399 caregivers including 165 full-time doctors. It is also planning to have a 100 bedded satellite hospital at Moreh, the international border town, for the healthcare needs of the border areas of India and Myanmar.
Dr. Khundongbam, speaking about the intake capacity of SAHS said that the National Medial Commission has permitted 150 students per year from the 2021-2022 academic session. He further said that they had submitted proposal for fee structures and seat sharing etc to the government for approval, mentioning that hostel and other infrastructures were ready for the session, likely to start from Dec 15, 2021.
Apart from generating employment, he said that the new medical college will also help the state to develop as one of the global healthcare destinations and that the present location of the SHRI in Imphal has become a productive place.
