With the cabinet expansion and reshuffle of the Devendra Fadnavis-led government, the newly-appointed medical education minister Girish Mahajan spoke to dna's Santosh Andhale about his plans and the issues of medical education in the state.
Excerpts:
You have been handling the water resources department and now been assigned the new portfolio of medical education. What are your immediate plans?
First of all healthcare sector is nothing new for me. For the past 20 years, I am closely working in the medical filed and I know the limitation and restriction of this department. I had been talking with the senior doctors for a long time about their issues and what challenges are faced by the patients. Also, I have some idea about the department how they function and what needs to be done for a patient to get better treatment and care. Medical colleges are the backbone of the health care system.
Resident doctors have always been subject to assault and unhygienic condition of resident quarters?
Resident doctors play major role in all medical college to offer a treatment to the patient. These are our students and we will take care of their accommodation. I know they are facing some problems regarding accommodation. This issue is definitely on our agenda. Not only the quarters, but we are also focusing on their health. They should get all facilities they deserve. There's already some work being done regarding the security of the doctors. We are also trying to arrange regular dialogues with the resident doctors where they can put forth their grievances.
What are the new plans for medical education?
Instead of the new plans there is a lot on plate that we need to finish first. There are proposals of new medical colleges open in different part of the state, we will give priority to this issue. There will be super-specialty building upcoming in Sir JJ hospital campus we will try expedite the work of this project. Our doctors not only treat patients but also do lot of research in their respective field. There is tremendous scope for research in medicine. I will soon be meeting deans of all medical colleges and will ask them to concentrate on research. Also, we will organise health camps across the state were super-speciality doctors visit and offer treatment.
There are long pending issue of promotion of medical teachers. Is there a plan to work on it?
I am just taking charge of this department, surely we will organise a meeting with medical teacher association. There are some issues related to time bound promotion. I will sit with our senior officials and try to solve the problem. Medical teachers create new generation of doctors, so we will definitely take care of their problems.
