NEW DELHI: The Uttarakhand government plans to open a medical college in every district, chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said on Thursday. The move is aimed at increasing the state’s medical education capacity and improving healthcare access.Chief minister Dhami said the government is working to make Uttarakhand self-reliant in medical education. “Our priority is to provide quality medical education in every district so that students no longer need to go outside the state,” he said. Dhami added that nursing and paramedical institutions are also being expanded.Health secretary Dr Rajesh Kumar said new government medical colleges will soon begin operations in Rudrapur and Pithoragarh. He said the focus is on upgrading healthcare services and filling faculty positions across colleges.Uttarakhand currently has five government and four private medical colleges offering a total of 1,325 MBBS seats. The government colleges in Srinagar (Garhwal), Haldwani, Dehradun, Almora, and Haridwar together admit 625 MBBS students and have 238 postgraduate (PG) seats.In the private sector, the Himalayan Institute of Medical Sciences and Shri Guru Ram Rai Institute of Medical and Health Sciences in Dehradun have 250 MBBS seats each, while the Graphic Era Institute of Medical Sciences and Gautam Buddha Medical College have 150 seats each.

