Thiruvananthapuram/New Delhi: Congress General Secretary and Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday welcomed the approval for a government medical college in Wayanad, describing it as a long-awaited milestone for the district. The National Medical Commission (NMC) has also cleared a new medical college for Kasaragod.
In a statement, Priyanka Gandhi said the project marked the realization of a decades-old aspiration of the people of Wayanad. She credited the sustained efforts of Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and local leaders for pushing the demand, while thanking both the Centre and the Kerala government for their support.
“Thrilled to know that finally, the dream of a medical college in Wayanad is going to be a reality. The earnest requests of lakhs of people of Wayanad, the sustained efforts by Rahul Gandhi, and all our own efforts to expedite the matter have borne fruit,” she said.
She urged the state government to ensure the college becomes operational at the earliest, stressing that it would greatly improve healthcare access for Wayanad’s tribal and rural communities.
State Health Minister Veena George confirmed on Tuesday that the NMC has sanctioned 50 MBBS seats each at the new medical colleges in Wayanad and Kasaragod. She added that the state has created the required infrastructure and academic facilities in line with NMC norms, and admissions will begin this academic year.
At Wayanad Medical College, a multipurpose block worth Rs 45 crore and a 60-seat nursing college have already been completed. To support the first MBBS batch, 140 posts, including 115 teaching and 25 non-teaching staff, have been created and filled.
The facility also houses a modern mortuary complex costing Rs 2.3 crore, a cath lab worth Rs 8.23 crore enabling angioplasty, a cardiology department, and a paediatric ICU. Kerala’s first sickle cell unit has been set up at the college, which recently conducted the district’s first hip replacement surgery on a sickle cell patient.
E-health and e-office systems have been introduced, and an oxygen generator plant worth Rs 20.61 lakh has been commissioned. Both the Wayanad and Kasaragod medical colleges will be expanded in phases, similar to existing government medical colleges, the minister said.