Mumbai: With an intention to strengthen the healthcare network in the city, Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) has decided to open up a medical college in Mulund, a north-eastern suburb of mumbai. With a 300 bed hospital, the college will enroll nearly 50 MBBS students in its first batch in 2009.  

Speaking to media persons here on Tuesday, Prabhat C Chaturvedi, director-general of ESIC, said, “A recent Planning Commission report pegged the shortage of doctors in India at 6 lakh and nurses at 10 lakh. As we already have infrastructure by way of hospitals, we thought we could produce quality doctors.”

Talking about Corporation’s future plans, Chaturvedi said, “We plan to have one college in every state where ESIC runs a hospital and will acquire land in other states.”

Besides this, in its three hospitals- ESIS Andheri, MGM Parel and ESIS Mulund, the Corporation will also launch PG specialisation courses from next year. It also plans to come up with a dental college in Vashi and 60 nursing schools across the country. 

ESIC has already got a green signal from the health ministry for this purpose.