Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh today ordered a crackdown on private medical and dental colleges "engaged in the business of making money", warning them to either perform or close shop. The order was issued at a review meeting of the Departments of Medical Education and Research, and Health and Family Welfare here to discuss the problems faced by medical institutions in the state.
In a stern message, Amarinder said private medical and dental colleges found violating admission norms and not delivering quality education would be shut down, an official spokesman said.
Amid complaints of lack of funds by government medical colleges, the chief minister asked Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh to ensure that Central funds reserved for medical education were made available to these colleges for infrastructure upgradation.
The Congress leader also asked the Vice Chancellor of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS), Faridkot to prepare a blueprint in consultation with the Department of Medical Education and Research to improve the functioning of medical colleges.
He asked the department officials to explore upgradation of medical facilities in the state with the help of eminent medical specialists like Naresh Trehan.
Underlining his government's focus on e-governance to bring in greater transparency and accountability among medical institutions, Amarinder instructed the officials concerned to go in for computerisation of patient records.
He also called for introducing electronic smart health cards linked with Aadhar, to boost efficiency, streamline systems and checking fudging of records etc.
The Congress leader finally directed the authorities to initiate the process of setting up a state cancer institute to combat the increasing number of cancer cases in the state.
