The Centre is considering raising the retirement age of faculty doctors of 
Azad made the announcement while addressing a public gathering after laying the foundation stone of a 150 crore super speciality hospital at Tanda near Dharamsala on Wednesday.
Highlighting the steps taken by the government to augment the standards of medical education in the country, he said in the last three years, the Centre has raised the number of MD seats in medical colleges up to 4700 per year as against 300 in previous years.
Noting that India’s population is expected to touch the 120 crore mark next year, he said there is need for at least 600 medical colleges to cater to a population like that, whereas the country has just 314 at the moment (including 160 in the private sector) which are producing less than 10 doctors for per 10,000 people.
One medical school at every district headquarters shall be opened from the next session, which shall prepare doctors in three years, he said, adding these doctors shall be appointed in rural areas after three months of internship.
However, these doctors will not be entitled to perform any surgery, he said.
Talking about the super speciality hospitals in medical colleges, he said that 13 of them were sanctioned last year for the entire country and six this year including TandaMedical College.
He said that this will include ecology, cardiology, cardiac surgery, nephrology, neuron surgery and other facilities besides 200-bed special wards.
Azad said the project shall be completed in 18 months.