NMC withdraws temporary suspension of Recognition to 150 MBBS seats at GMC Alappuzha

Alappuzha: In a major relief to the medical aspirants, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has decided to withdraw its earlier decision of temporarily suspend admission to 150 MBBS seats at the Alappuzha Government Medical College.

Kerala Health Minister Veena George confirmed this on Thursday and she further informed that the all-India quota seats of the GMC Alappuzha have been included in the seat matrix od NMC and further measures have also been taken to start the process of admission in the State quota seats.

She further said that the mandatory recognition from the Apex medical commission has also been given for the admissions to all 100 MBBS seats in Jonni , Idduki Medical Colleges for this year. Necessary measures have been taken for retaining the postgraduate medical seats as well, adds Mathrubhumi.

The announcement from the Health Minister comes at a time when media reports were suggesting that NMC temporarily suspended the recognition of GMC Alappuzha for 150 MBBS seats.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that NMC had issued the suspension to the medical college after conducting a surprise inspection at the institute. The Commission took this decision for "non-compliance" with the NMC standards.

Allegedly, one of the reasons why NMC issued suspension is that the NMC team found lack of an emergency medicinal treatment facility at the medical college. Also, there was allegedly a shortage in the number of faculty, especially that of Senior Resident Doctors. The commission had reportedly asked the Medical Education Department to resolve the issues including appointments to a few positions, punching machines, and CCTV cameras.

Also Read: Non-Compliance with NMC Standards: Recognition of 150 MBBS Seats at GMC Alappuzha temporarily suspended

However, now NMC has reportedly decided to withdraw its earlier decision. As per the latest media report by Onmanorama, the medical college write to the Commission twice and stated that the issues pointed out by the Commission were resolved. Following this, now the commission has withdrawn its earlier suspension on the admissions to the medical college seats.

Confirming this, Kerala Health Minister Veena George told the Daily, "Alappuzha Government Medical College will not lose its MBBS seats. Steps have been taken to carry out admissions to all the 175 MBBS seats this year, including the 150 admissions which were frozen."

“The all-India quota seats of Alappuzha Medical College have been included in the National Medical Commission (NMC) seat matrix. Steps have also been initiated to admit students in the Kerala quota and ease the procedures,” the Minister told Mathrubhumi.

Meanwhile, the Vice Chancellor of Kerala University of Health Sciences (KUHS), Dr. Mohanan Kunnummal informed that the affiliation could be renewed for Konni, Palakkad and Idukki medical colleges if the State Government filed an affidavit stating that the colleges would resolve the lapses pointed out by the Commission.

KUHS did not renew the affiliation for these three government medical colleges this year pointing to the shortage of teachers. The recent media report by Kerala Kaumudi adds that 150 MBBS seats in Alappuzha and 100 MBBS seats each in Idduki, Konni and Palakkad Medical Colleges were facing uncertainty because of lack of teachers. Now, the State has assured that 250 teachers will be appointed soon and the Health Department has asked the Finance Department to allocate 250 teaching posts immediately to avoid losing approval for the course. 

Also Read: NMC nod to 2nd year MBBS batches at Konni, Idukki Medical Colleges