As part of its medical education programme, the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) will start two medical colleges in Tamil Nadu in the next academic year. For this, the ESIC has identified two model hospitals in the state, one at KK Nagar in Chennai and other in Coimbatore, said Jose Cheriyan, commissioner of ESIC, New Delhi.

In a chat with Pharmabiz, he said that applications were forwarded to the Medical Council of India (MCI) to start eight medical colleges in the next academic year including two in Tamil Nadu.

The other six projects in the pipeline are at places in Kerala, Rajasthan, New Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Faridabad and at Gulbarga in Karnataka. He said the first medical college of the Corporation was started at Rajaji Nagar in Bengaluru in last year and one more will be started in the state of Karnataka.

To a question, the Commissioner said ESIC has already started six post graduate courses in medical sciences in association with government medical colleges in Mumbai (2), Bengaluru, Joka in Kolkata, KK Nagar in Chennai and Basaidarapur in New Delhi. But for starting degree courses, several norms of MCI have to be complied with, he said.

According to him, the Corporation’s medical college at Parippalli in Kollam in Kerala will be able to commence classes from next academic year. The construction of the building work is about to complete.

For furtherance of the healthcare management for the insured persons in the country, the Corporation is keen to take up one hospital each from all the states to convert into model hospitals, and which will be later attached to the upcoming medical colleges in those areas. The financial assistances to start the medical colleges is from the Corporation’s resource fund that was accumulated for the last several years through the insurance premiums of employers and employees. However, in future, the Corporation will also approach the union government for financial assistance, the Commissioner said.

Regarding the ongoing scheme of ‘Cashless/Hasslefree Super speciality treatment facilities for Insured Persons’, he said, the Corporation will ink pact with more private super speciality hospitals in the country. At present it has tied up with 800 speciality hospitals all over India, among them 20 hospitals are from Tamil Nadu and 15 from Kerala. The insured employee and the members of his family will get all medical assistances from these hospitals.

The major advantage of the scheme is that, he said, there is no limit for assistance to the insured employee for his treatment or for his family. Recently, in Kerala, the Corporation has reimbursed Rs.2.5 crore for a patient admitted at Velloor medical college for treatment for haemophelia. The insured employee or his family members can avail healthcare benefits from any of the hospitals tied up with the Corporation.

Though the Corporation had plan to start more dental colleges, the dental council of India did not give permission to start further due to shortage of employment opportunities for BDS. The only one dental college of the Corporation is in New Delhi, the Commissioner added.

At present ESIC has 150 hospitals, 1403 dispensaries, one medical college and one dental college.