WB to soon have a state-level Institute of Public Health

The Institute will develop as a global centre to address key areas of education, research and policy formulations in public health and related subjects

In a major development, the West Bengal Government has announced the setting up of a state-level Institute of Public Health & Research at Kalyani in Nadia district of the state.

It has decided to constitute a global advisory board comprising Nobel laureate, Prof (Dr) Amartya Sen and renowned economist from United State’s MIT, Prof Abhijit Binayak Banerjee. It would also comprise other eminent experts in public health. ‘The Institute is likely to be operational by this year’, said an official of the State Health & Family Welfare Department.

‘The Institute will develop as a global centre to address key areas of education, research and policy formulations in public health and related subjects,’ the Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee said in a post on her official FB page.

According to sources, the Institute will have two-year postgraduate courses in public health subjects like Health Economics, Disease Profiling, Epidemiological Studies, Population Studies and Health Data Analysis.

The Institute will also provide inputs for preparing healthcare policies for the State, the official added. The official said the Institute would start operating from a building which once used to be a tuberculosis hospital.

More importantly, a full-fledged All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) is also coming up at Kalyani, being jointly set up by the Central and State governments.

Besides, Prof Sen and Prof Banerjee of MIT, others members of the global advisory board named by the Chief Minister includes Prof Sir Michael Marmot, Director, University College of London Institute of Health Equity, Prof. Lincoln C. Chenn, Chairman, China Medical Board in Harvard School of Public Health, Massachusetts- US, Prof. Grant Miller, Director of the Stanford Centre for International Development, Prof K Srinath Reddy, President of Public Health Foundation of India and K Sujatha Rao, a former Union Health Secretary.

The Health Department official claimed that the advisory board members have given their consent in writing to join the board. They would advice on how to make this institute a centre of excellence. The State government would initially fund the institute. The government is likely to invest to the tune of Rs 1-1.5 crores in the project.

The institute will be run by a society, of which the Chief Minister will be the Chairperson and the Health & Family Welfare Secretary will be its Vice-Chairman. A Director will be soon appointed in consultation with the global advisory board, the official said.

The Kalyani institute would have students from other backgrounds like economics and sociology, apart from MBBS students. To start with, there will be 10 seats, half of which will be for medical graduates. Kolkata already has a Central Government-run All India Institute of Hygiene & Public Health.