New Delhi: The Central Government has given its approval for additional 3791 post-graduate medical seats in colleges, which is to be implemented from the upcoming academic session. Keeping in view the fact of the increasing scarcity of doctors, the centre has taken the decision to meet the shortage.
As per sources, to meet the health needs of its 1.17 billion people, India needs at least 50,000 medical graduates and 18,000 post-graduates every year. However, it has only 35,202 medical college seats at graduate level and 13,503 at the PG level. The standard set by the World Health Organization (WHO) is one doctor for every 1,500 people, but the current scenario in the country is one for every 2,800 people.
Increasing the number of seats at the undergraduate level is not possible until there are enough post-graduates and specialists to teach them, due to which, the number of PG seats has been escalated to 17,294. The proposed PG seats will be an addition to the existing in the premier All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), which is presently 88 and the Post Graduate Institute Chandigarh standing at 220.
Further, with the announcement of the increase in the number of PG seats, there also came another rationalization from the Indian Medical Council (Amendment) Act, which states that any institution, irrelevant of being a government or private, can now apply to start new medical courses or increase seats. Recently, the Health Ministry received the recommendations from the report submitted by MCI (Medical Council of India) following which the ministry will issue a final order by March 31.
