The Kerala government has directed the Health Department to find land to set up a new public medical college and hospitall in the Wayanad district of Kerala. The decision was made at a high-level committee headed by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
Earlier, the state government had considered converting the DM WIMS Medical College into a public hospital. It had even appointed an expert committee headed by the Chief Secretary of the state, to look into the feasibility of the government taking up the institute.
In July 2020, Azad Moopen, the Managing Trustee of the DM Educational Research Foundation (DMERF), had told the media the DM WIMS has been running in a charitable manner. He said that it would take the government at least another five years and a considerable amount of funds to construct a new medical college, and that DM WIMS would readily cater to the government. However, the expert committee found that the demands made by the DMERF, which owns DM WIMS, were not workable. Following this, the government directected the Health Department to find appropriate land for another medical college.
DM WIMS was established 10 years ago, and has 150 MBBS seats from which two batches of doctors have already passed out.
During the Kerala Yatra held by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan a week ago at Kalpetta of Wayanad, he had promised that within 5 days a decision will be taken over the medical college hospital. A government medical college in Wayanad was a major election promise of the Left Democratic Front, as the region does not have access to quality public healthcare. The United Democratic Front had flagged this as a major negligence from the part of the LDF government.