KGMU awards degrees,awaits state approval for its Centenary Hospital

During the event,the university awarded medical degrees to a total of 805 candidates while 25 students bagged gold medals in different categories. In an uplifting moment,Vandana,a student who comes from the backward community,received 17 gold medals,which included the two most prestigious – Chancellor’s Gold Medal and Hewett Gold Medal.

Addressing it in his speech,Joshi said Vandana’s success is “a historic moment for the state”.

Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav,who was also the chief guest,said that his government has worked significantly in the field of health and has been able to get recognition for over 500 new seats of medical science from the Medical Council of India in the past two years.

While the university is arguably one of the most prestigious in the country,it has for long been on the path to becoming Asia’s largest hospital,that is if the state cabinet approves the Centenary Hospital,a state-of-the-art healthcare conceived to commemorate the 100 years of King George Medical College,but which has been pending since 2007.

Acknowledging the fact,KGMU vice-chancellor Dr D K Gupta said if the final approval for running the Centenary Hospital is given by the state government,KGMU,which already has a 3,000-bed facility for patients,will become the largest hospital in Asia.

Although the foundation stone was laid by Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav in 2005,after much delay,the hospital’s outpatient department finally became operative in 2011,under Mayawati’s regime. Initially,the hospital was to run on a corporate model but the high consultation fee proved a deterrent and the varsity administration proposed that it be turned into a public hospital.

Claiming that most of the procedures involving change in the financial model is complete,the V-C said the hospital only “awaits cabinet approval”. The hospital will have 30 high dependability beds in the intensive care units,40 pre-operative and around 70 post-operative beds.