From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore

Bangalore, Aug 7: The country’s premier Catholic Medical College, St John’s Medical College, whose golden jubilee celebrations are set to conclude on August 9, Saturday, is planning to establish a well-equipped Clinical Skill Laboratory.

The clinical skill laboratory, which is available in only a few medical colleges as of now, is aimed at helping the students and faculty members of the College to meet their highly advanced tranining requirements as also help the students and faculty members to enhance their skills in high-end surgical and complex medical procedures besides offering simulation facilities.

The clinical skill laboratory, being planned as part of the golden jubilee commemoration projects, may take another five to six months, said Fr (Dr) Lawrence D’Souza, Director of the St John’s National Academy of Medical Sciences, briefing reporters on the growth, achievements and future plans of all the institutions of the Academy.

Dr Bobby, President of the St John’s Alumni Association, explained that the College was exploring the possibility of leasing the high-end equipments from reputed companies engaged in Medical Science Research that will be necessary for the Clinical Skill Laboratory in view of the huge costs involved. Computer simulation facility is already available in the College like all medical colleges as per Medical Council of India (MCI) norms.

Answering questions on the total cost of the project, he said ''it could be Rs 2 or 3 crore and even more and virtually the sky is the limit” as several state-of-the-art machines and equipments would be needed and the cost might be prohibitively huge if they were to be purchased.

The Bangalore Medical College, M S Ramaiah Medical College and Kasturba Medical College were among the few medical colleges in Karnataka to have such clinical skill laboratories, Dr Bobby said.

Grand Finale of Golden Jubilee on Aug 9

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will be chief guest at the grand finale of the goldens jubilee celebrations of the College at its well-furnished auditorium on August 9, Saturday, with Vatican’s Envoy to India and Apostolic Nuncio in India, Most Rev Salvatore Pernnacchio as the guest of honour.

The CBCI President, His Eminence Baselios Cardinal Catholicos, Archbishop of Trivandrum, will be presiding over the function. Home Minister K J George, Transport Minister B Ramalinga Reddy, Medical Education Minister Dr Sharan Prakash Patil and Dr Auburn Jacob, Director of Emmaus Swiss Leprosy Mission, will be other guests at the golden jubilee functipn.

The St John’s Medical College and Hospital, which was started from ''borrowed” buildings on July 8, 1963, under the aegis of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), New Delhi, has now grown into a jewel in the crown of CBCI with a full-fledged 1250-bed teaching hospital, nursing college, institute of health management and para-medical studies, community health centre as well as an institute of population, health and research with 24 fully-equipped and well-staffed departments, has an enviable record of providing out-patient treatment of over 6.80 lakh persons and some treatments to some 55,000 in-patients annually.

Fr Lawrence D’Souza indicated that the intake of the St John’s Medical College could well be enhanced from the present 60 to 150 from the next academic year if MCI approves the recommendation of the Rajiv Gandhi University of Medical Sciences. The local inspection team of the University has already inspected and submitted a favourable report to the State Government, which has also given a no-objection or essentiality certificate.

Hike in Intake will be "Golden Jubilee Gift"

The proposal has been submitted to the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry, which will be communicating its approval to the MCI.

''We hope the MCI decision to grant letter of permission (LOP) for increasing the intake from 60 to 150 should come as a golden jubilee gift,” FrLawrence D’Souza said.

First to Make Rural Service Compulsory

He said reservation of 15 seats for religious sisters every year, who will be permanently serving in rural areas, since the inception of the College has been a unique feature of the college. The College made 2-year compulsory rural service bond mandatory for all students since 1973, long before Karnataka Government adopted a similar model of compulsory rural service for doctors on completion of the MBBS course.

St John’s Medical College is one of the few leading medical colleges in the country to have academic and scientific collaborations with institutions like National Institutes of Health, International Atomic Energy Agency, Welcome Foundation, WHO, Department of Science and Technology, Department of Biotechnology and Indian Institute of Science, Minnesota University, USA, Tufts University, Boston and Karolinska Institute, Sweden.

The College has the distinction of being among the first in the country to include teaching of Medical Ethics as part of the MBBS curriculum and also to have a full-fledged Department of Medical Ethics.

St John’s Medical College has the rare honour of being conferred the prestigious Singh-Obama award, a significant achievement for an Indian Medical College, and has got itself connected with the Harvard School of Public Health under the Harvard-India Nutrition initiative.

The College along with the Christian Medical College, Vellore, has the rare distinction of being permitted to conduct own all India entrance test for admission of students. The St John’s Medical College received as many as 11,500 applications for the 60 seats and selection of the students by conducting written tests and specialised tests to evaluate the aptitude, attitudes, value system and commitments besides assessing the inter-personal skills and adherence to the core values of the institution as laid out by CBCI is an valuable experience, said Fr (Dr) PaulParathazham, the new Director-designate of the St John’s National Academy of Medical Sciences, explained.

The entrance test for admission of MBBS students is being held at different centres like Bangalore, Trivandrum, Chennai, Vijayawada, Mumbai, Ranchi, Kolkata, Guwahati, Delhi besides Hyderabad and Ernakulum.