CHANDIGARH, Oct 13 — All medical colleges in the country will go online soon so as to facilitate diffusion of the latest information on research and developments in the field of medicine and health care, says Dr C.P. Thakur, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, maintaining that medical colleges in the country were in a sorry state.

Talking to The Tribune here this afternoon, Dr Thakur, the first qualified doctor to be the Union Health Minister, said medical education had been ignored.

“The Medical College, Patna, was one of the five best medical colleges of the country. It used to get all latest research journals and other publications. But today it gets nothing. I am really disappointed. The situation is no better anywhere. I think at the time of planning... we never took medical colleges seriously. They need attention and funding. The facilities need to be upgraded in all medical colleges.

“The Union Ministry of Health proposes to bring all medical colleges on line so that they have access to the latest research, professional publications and journals”, Dr Thakur said.

Accompanied by Dr S.K. Sharma, Director, PGI; Dr Rashpal Malhotra, Director, CRRID; and Dr S.M. Bose of the PGI, Dr Thakur, who visited The Tribune office before leaving for New Delhi by the afternoon flight, also called on Mr Hari Jaisingh, Editor.

Dr Thakur said ever since he took over as Union Minister he had been accepting requests for additional seats in all government medical colleges.

Medical education in the country was in bad shape.

“See institutes like the PGI. It produces about 80 specialists and super-specialists every year. The same number is produced by the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences. These are our institutes of excellence.

“We are now planning to introduce a screening system at the AIIMS so that only special cases are admitted to the institute for treatment. I am keen on restoring the referral status of the AIIMS and the PGI,” Dr Thakur said maintaining that a special trauma centre had already been approved for the PGI here.

He said the government wanted to go by the recommendations of a special committee to look into the pay scales of doctors working at centres of excellence like the AIIMS and the PGI so that they got the same scales. “We want uniformity in pay scales for people working at the AIIMS and the PGI,” he added.

Dr Thakur said the government was also keen that primary health centres, rural health centres and district hospitals throughout the country were strengthened.