Friday, July 09, 2010
Chennai: Discussions are on for the Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University to set up a hospital on the outskirts of the Raj Bhavan campus, university vice-chancellor Mayil Vahanan Natarajan said.

Speaking at a press meet organised ahead of the university’s 20th convocation here on Thursday, he said the hospital would be a 500-bed facility set up on four acres of land with 300 beds set to be installed in the first year. Pointing out that the establishment of a hospital should be the core of a medical college, the vice-chancellor added that the presence of patients and the growth of a hospital was vital before it could be transformed into a medical college.

“We are going to sign an MoU with the Government General Hospital, the Madras Medical College and the National Institute of Siddha so that their departments can be affiliated with our university and enable doctors to take up research projects with us. For all practical purposes, the departments will become a part of the university,” Mayil Vahanan Natarajan said.

Pointing out that fellowships would be offered for doctors to pursue sub-specialisation courses as “this is where the future lay”, the vice-chancellor said the university was working on creating training facilities within various centres of excellence for these courses. Papers would be given for these subjects within the theory papers, he said.

2 convocations every year
Authorities at the Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University announced that the university would have two convocations a year henceforth. “We want to do this to prevent undue delay in the issue of degrees to students so that they can go ahead with pursuing their admissions abroad,” the vice-chancellor said.