The health ministry has decided not to give approvals to any new private medical colleges and to review the 12 medical colleges that had been given primary approval over the last few months.
In a primary observation, the ministry found faults in the process of the previous approvals and suspended all activities regarding the process until a report was submitted by a review committee.
Newly appointed Health Minister Mohammed Nasim announced the decisions yesterday during a press briefing at the secretariat.
Asked if the ministry had plans to relax the cut-off marks for private medical college admission tests, Nasim said there would be no compromise with the cut-off marks, but added that the ministry had decided to extend the admission deadline to January 30.
Eleven new private medical colleges had been given permission last year, allegedly in violation of existing policies. There are claims that former health minister AFM Ruhal Hoque had granted the permissions during his final days in office.
The new private medical colleges were Addin Basundhara Medical College, Brahmanbaria Medical College, Shah Makdum Medical College, Care Medical College, United Medical College, Universal Medical College, Advocate Abdul Hamid Medical College, Khulna City Medical College, Park View Medical College, Port City Medical College, US-Bangla Medical College and Kachiruddin Medical College.
Seeking anonymity, several senior ministry officials said influential people including the president, several former ministers and state ministers, medical university teachers, and senior health sector officials had direct or indirect stakes at the ownership of the colleges.
An official of the health directorate, preferring to stay unnamed, said a large amount of money had changed hands under the table, with some medical college owners bribing Tk40m-Tk50m for securing the final approval.
The country currently has 65 private medical colleges, a figure which stood at 40 in 2008.
Most of the new med schools reportedly failed to follow the Private Medical College Establishment and Management Policy 2011, as they did not apply for approval within January-April last year.
The authorities of the new medical colleges also failed to meet the requirement of opening full-fledged hospitals with at least 250-bed capacity, two years prior to submitting applications to the ministry.