Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said in a reply to the Lok Sabha that a total of 1,425 PG medical seats remained vacant last year. The health minister was responding to a question on the number of seats for PG medical courses which remained vacant in the last academic year.
Further, as per provisions of the Regulations on Graduate Medical Education and Post Graduate Medical Education, common counseling for admission to central medical educational institutions, all India quota seats in government medical colleges and deemed universities is conducted by the Medical Council Committee (MCC), Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health, Government of India, Mandaviya said in reply to a written question.
Listing the steps that have been taken to ensure that PG medical seats are not left vacant, Mandaviya said the benchmark percentile for admission to PG degree and diploma courses has been reduced and the counseling for all India quota PG (broad specialty) seats increased to four rounds from 2021.
The steps taken to further increase the availability of medical postgraduate seats in the country include a centrally sponsored scheme for strengthening or upgradation of existing state government or central government medical colleges, and a central sector scheme for upgradation of government medical colleges by construction of super specialty blocks.
Also, undergraduate courses have started in 19 AIIMS, DNB qualification has been recognised for appointment as faculty to take care of shortage of teaching staff, DNB diploma courses have been approved in eight broad specialities and the ratio of teacher to students has been rationalized to increase the number of postgraduate medical seats in the country, he said.
By amending the regulations, it has been made mandatory for all medical colleges to start PG courses within three years from the date of their MBBS recognition or continuation of recognition, Mandaviya stated.
Commenting on the situation, Dr Mahesh Kumar K, President, Healthcare Reforms Doctors Association says, It’s common that most of the students don’t prefer Non-Clinical branches due to less opportunities & less budget allocation for medical research as you can see many Nobel laureates from medicine are from physiology & Biochemistry. But the trend may change this academic year as many new medical colleges are coming up which are experiencing a huge deficit of teaching staff especially from the Non-Clinical side. And another reason is after easing norms by NMC state govts applied for excess Non-Clinical PG seats with existing infrastructure than clinical seats which require additional infrastructure.
Why few seats are left over in clinical branches is a question, maybe those seats are having high fee structure or no proper infrastructure in those colleges. We are also hearing that many students are afraid to take clinical branches due to increasing assaults on doctors.”