850 more MBBS seats this year in TN

850 more MBBS seats this year in TN

Admissions Okayed In 7 New Colleges

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:29.09.2021

The Centre has granted permission to Tamil Nadu to admit 850 students to undergraduate courses in seven new government medical colleges this academic year, health minister Ma Subramanian said on Tuesday. This will take the total MBBS seats in the state to 4,300.

On Monday, deans of three colleges in Virudhunagar, Kallakurichi and Ooty received permission to start admission with 150 students each. Four other medical colleges in Namakkal, Tiruvallur, Tirupur and Ramanathapuram have been granted permission to admit 100 students each.

Last year, the Directorate of Medical Education applied for permission to start 11 new medical colleges with 150 MBBS seats each. The National Medical Commission sent inspection teams of all these institutions between July and August. The panel of inspectors verified the infrastructure and human resources facility required to admit students for the first year MBBS course in these newly constructed colleges. They visited hospitals, anatomy, physiology and biochemistry labs, library, hostels – required for first year students.

Based on reports from the inspection committee, the centre has asked Tamil Nadu to upgrade infrastructure, mostly civil works, in Dindigul, Krishnagiri, Ariyalur and Nagapattinam medical colleges. “Most of these are civil work and are expected to be completed in ten days,” said Ma Subramanian. “We will reapply for inspection to these colleges in October. We will also ask for an additional 50 seats in Namakkal, Tirupur, Tiruvallur and Ramanathapuram. We are hopeful of getting 850 more seats for the coming academic year. If that happens, the total number of seats will go up to 5,200," he said.

While analysts in private coaching institutes are predicting tough competition for medical admissions, these additional seats will allow more aspirants to join the course, they say. In 2020, the NEET cut off for the open category was 598, followed by 554 for BC, 527 for BCM, 521 of MBC, 443 for SC, 375 for SCA and 346 for ST at the government colleges. “This year, the NEET score may be higher, and the competition is likely to get tougher. Additional seats will offer more space for meritorious students,” said Malini Ravichandran, who coaches students for NEET.

Besides offering medical education, these colleges will help the state expand tertiary care to districts. Most of these colleges will have 700-750 bed hospitals attached to these colleges that have all the facilities to offer quality care, he said. The new medical colleges will help the health department provide quality medical training at affordable cost and offer speciality and super speciality care to people living in the area free of cost, said health secretary J Radhakrishnan.