MCI nod to add 50 more MBBS seats
With an aim to fix growing problem of shortage of doctors in the country, the Medical Council of India (MCI) increased the intake capacity of medical colleges, by adding 50 more seats at the undergraduate level. The government is expected to notify the proposal this week after which colleges will be eligible to enhance their intake capacity.
During their recent meeting, the regulatory body approved one-time enhancement of seats from 50/100 to 100/150 for undergraduate medical students. “The matter was considered by the Board of Governors (BoG) and after detailed deliberation and discussion at length, it was decided to approve the draft amendment notification for a Regulation instead of Rules for one time enhancement of seats from 50/100 to 100/150,” reads the minutes of the BoG meeting.
With the minimum standards for the colleges remaining the same, it is learnt that some of the members did raise their concerns and apprehensions over the objective and advised to take legal opinion over the issue, but the BoG decided to go ahead and approved the proposal. The Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad is expected to announce the development soon.
It was also decided that the time for implementation of the decision to be “five days from the date of approval of the Notification (Minutes) put on website”.
The ministry officials say that the move gains significance as the Centre has planned to double the number of medical seats in undergraduate and postgraduate courses to achieve a target of 80,000 MBBS and 45,000 PG seats by 2021.
The plan has been mooted to ensure a doctor-patient ratio of 1:1,000 against the current fraction of 1:2,000.
The ministry of health and family welfare is targeting additional 38,431 seats in the MBBS and 22,806 seats in the PG streams by 2021, representing a rise of 92.45 per cent and 102.75 per cent respectively.
The target is 80,000 MBBS seats and 45,000 PG seats by 2021.
At present, there are 41,569 MBBS seats in the 335 medical colleges across India and 22,194 PG seats. However, most of these seats and medical colleges are concentrated in the southern and western states with the central Indian states of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh barely getting any share in medical infrastructure.
The ministry’s latest data shows that 66 per cent of the 335 medical colleges and 69 per cent of the current MBBS seats are located at present in the southern and western states, including Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Goa. Eastern India, comprising Bihar and West Bengal, which feature among the five most populous states, have 10 per cent just 9 per cent MBBS seats.
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