The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has granted a conditional permission to start five new army medical college inside cantonment areas in Rangpur, Jessore, Bagura, Comilla and Chittagong.
The decision was made on September 18 at a meeting of a committee tasked to approve new medical and dental colleges, health technology institutes, medical assistant training schools and revising and approving new medical courses.
The meeting was headed by health minister Mohammed Nasim.
According to the Establishment Policy of Private Medical and Dental College 2011, a medical college hass to full-fill a given set of conditions to receive full permission to conduct academic activities and admit students.
The meeting also granted conditional and temporary academic approval for two years to another new private medical college, Bikrompur Bhuyan’s Medical College and Hospital, allowing it to admit 50 students in the upcoming (2014-2015) academic session.
The committee also advised on visiting and conducting a follow-up investigation on Monowara Sikder Medical College at Shariatpur which earlier received primary approval from the ministry.
Professor Dr ABM Abdul Hannan, director for medical education and manpower development at the Directorate General for Health Services, confirmed the outcomes of the meeting to the Dhaka Tribune. Currently, there are 55 private medical college in the country with a total number of 4,850 seats.
Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, an army official, who is now serving as a director of a public medical college hospital, said military hospitals in different cantonments were already rich in specialist doctors of different areas and had a good flow of patients everyday.
He also mentioned that almost every cantonment has enough free space to build necessary structures for the new medical colleges.
Saying these new army medical colleges will be able to produce quality doctors in future, he also alleged that many private medical colleges received approval from the ministry despite of not having sufficient facilities.
As per the government policy on medical education, the new five army medical colleges have been asked to set up modern general hospitals having at least 250 beds.
At the same time, the new army medical colleges have also been asked to deposit Tk2,00,000 each as approval fees to the state treasury.
The policy also stated that the land allotted to the medical colleges must be transferred under its own name and the institution must be able to operate all academic and hospital activities with all facilities on a single campus.
Once the conditions were met, the ministry will finally announce its approval for the new medical colleges to conduct academic activities and admit students. Following the final approval, the new medical colleges will need to earn a formal recognition from the Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council and several public universities.
Meanwhile, the health ministry had allowed six months to Bikrampur Bhuyan’s Medical College to fulfil the conditions set by the policy, which includes appointing teachers as per recommendations of the medical council, before it could enrol students and start its academic activities.
In these six months, the Bikrampur Bhuyan’s Medical College will have to finalise and send a list of appointed teachers to the ministry and the health directorate and ready infrastructure, medical equipment and facilities similar to government-run hospitals.
It must also have adequate number of doctors, nurses, supporting staff and laboratories at the establishment.
Each medical college must also own a modern library, hostel accommodation, playgrounds and recreational facilities. Five percent of the seats will be kept reserved for meritorious students.
Seeking anonymity, several medical education experts told the Dhaka Tribune the ministry itself was violating the establishment policy as it gives no scope to provide conditional approvals.
“The policy asks medical colleges to meet all of its conditions before starting its academic activities, however, the ministry has been awarding approvals without considering the policy guidelines.
