NMC planning to increase UG medical seats from 82,500 to 1 lakh

NMC planning to increase UG medical seats from 82,500 to 1 lakh

TNN | Jul 19, 2021, 04.00 AM IST

AHMEDABAD: The National Medical Commission (NMC) under the ministry of health and family welfare is working out a plan to increase the total number of undergraduate medical seats to one lakh by next year, said sources aware of the development. This was discussed at a recent meeting of NMC chaired by the Union health secretary.

“There are presently 82,500 MBBS seats across the country and the government plans to take it to one lakh in a year’s time,” said a government official close to the development.

There are close to 540 medical colleges in the country offering MBBS courses of which 49% are government run and remaining are self-financed and on public-private-partnership basis.

“The process for adding new medical colleges and increasing the MBBS seats is presently on,” said Dr Aruna Vanikar, president of the undergraduate medical education board, NMC. She did not divulge further information on the number of new applications for increase in number of seats.

Sources in Gujarat medical education fraternity said that Gujarat has 5,500-odd UG medical seats and is likely to get three more colleges. “There are deliberations to start three new medical colleges in the state which would add 450 seats,” said an official.

To add more seats, the government is exploring the option of running medical colleges in two shifts to increase the number of student intake. A similar plan is being worked out in different parts of the country too, sources added.

Sources also said it is being considered to start medical colleges affiliated with government hospitals. "There are at least six districts which have government hospitals and it is being considered to apply for medical colleges here," said a senior medical education official.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an address in February said that around 30,000 MBBS seats and 24,000 postgraduate seats in medicine have been added since the present Central government came to power in 2014. Modi, while delivering a convocation address of a medical college in Tamil Nadu by way of video conferencing said that the number of MBBS seats have gone up by 50% and postgraduate seats by 80% since 2014.

The Central government has taken various initiatives to transform the health sector and the National Medical Commission, the newly-formed regulatory body, was formed to bring in more transparency.

As part of the Centre’s plans to increase the number of MBBS seats at a time when the country has faced shortage of doctors during Covid-19, the government aims to increase the number of seats by 50 students in government medical colleges.

Currently inspection at medical colleges in the country is on and for undergraduate institutions there will be no physical inspection and the permission for increase in seats will be given based on the affidavit filed by the college, said sources.

The Central government as part of its broad plans aims to have one government run medical college in every district of the country. This will solve the infrastructure issue as most of the districts today house one big government run medical hospital.

While the government may have found ways to solve the infrastructure issues for raising the number of MBBS seats, staff crunch is an issue that they are still grappling with, according to a medical field expert.

Government run medical colleges in Gujarat are already reeling under pressure due to 15% staff crunch, the situation is worse in self-financed colleges where there is 30% staff crunch, he added.