Amritsar: Government Medical College to overcome shortcomings

Amritsar: Targeting an increase in intake of MBBS students, by offering an addition of 50 seats the local Government Medical College (GMC) will be initiating steps to overcome its shortcomings. If all goes well, an addition of 50 MBBS seats will mean GMC offering 200 medical seats from the next session

The authorities of the local Government Medical College (GMC) are reported to be hopeful of the situation. A certificate by the college authorities has been submitted to the Union Ministry of Health underlying the fact that the work had been initiated to overcome shortcomings at the college, and be prepared for the next MCI inspection.

These shortcomings were listed by a team of the Medical Council of India (MCI) inspection in 2015. The work at the college broadly focuses on addressing issues of staff and infrastructure shortage for increasing the number of MBBS seats. Putting the MCI recommendations on a fast track mode, the ongoing work at the college is likely to be completed in the next eight months.

As reported by Tribune, Principal of the Government Medical College, Dr BS Bal, said, “The MCI has given us a month’s time to remove the shortcomings. We are already on the process and work has been initiated to remove deficiencies.” He said the work would be completed before the MCI team visits the GMC for a re-evaluation inspection.

Earlier, in December last year, a four member MCI team had raised objections over the proposal of increasing the MBBS seats citing staff and infrastructure shortage. Dr Bal said most of the objections raised by the MCI team were of minor nature. The work was started immediately to improve infrastructure, he added.

The college has been trying for getting more MBBS seats for the last five years. However, every year, objections were raised by the MCI citing staff and infrastructure shortage. Dr Bal said, “This time we are very close as the college has already complied with most of the eligibility criteria. We have also received positive response from the ministry after which we are hopeful that the MBBS seats will be increased.”

The Principal said the work on two building blocks and a students’ centre was also going at a fast pace and the project would be completed within a span of eight months. He said various new facilities were added at the college in recent years, which added more weight to the proposal for increasing MBBS seats at the medical institute.