What are the Minimum Standard Requirements to start PG Medical Courses? Here are Key takeaways from final PGMSR 2023

New Delhi: Releasing the final Post-graduate Minimum Standard Requirements 2023 (PGMSR-2023), the Postgraduate Medical Education Board (PGMEB) of the National Medical Commission (NMC) has laid down the conditions for the medical institutes across the country to be able to offer PG medical courses.

PGMSR-2023 has been released in compliance with Regulation 3.4 of the Postgraduate Medical Education Regulations (PGMER) 2023, which mentioned that all the medical institutes starting PG medical courses would have to satisfy the conditions regarding the physical infrastructure, teaching staff, clinical material, and hospital as detailed in the MSR document.

While the draft MSR for PG courses was released last year in September, the final document has now been published by NMC and it includes the mandatory requirements for a Postgraduate medical institute to start a PG medical course, and the clinical material/investigation workload required for post-graduate, the ratio of eligible post-graduate faculty to the number of students, the number of minimum and maximum beds in a Unit, the faculty and senior resident requirements for the number of PG seats in different specialities, the list of functional departments mandatory in a specific medical college etc.

Also Read: NMC Releases Draft Minimum Standard of Requirements for PG Medical Courses, Invites Comments

The key takeaways from the PGMSR 2023 are as follows:

As per PGMSR 2023, the medical colleges wishing to run PG courses need to fulfil the following infrastructural requirements:

♦ The hospital building will have to conform to the existing national building norms and various local statutory regulations for hospitals taking into consideration the requirements of the hospital as a service provider including administration, registration, records storage, out-patient and inpatient areas, operating theaters, Central Sterile Services Department (CSSD), Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Radiology and laboratory services, emergency areas, etc.

It further mentioned that the institute needs to have the mandatory regulatory/licensing approvals and all statutory requirements/clearances should have been obtained from the appropriate administrative authorities/State Government/Central Government/Pollution Control Board/Municipal Corporations/ Councils etc.

♦ Along with the increase in the number of beds in the hospital, the number of faculty, infrastructure, and other staff in the subject of Radio-diagnosis, Anaesthesia, Pathology, Microbiology, and Biochemistry should also be increased. If the Department faces more workload, then also an increase in the faculty and infrastructure shall be required. 

♦ NMC mentioned in the guidelines that the departments shall have an adequate number of the latest in-house equipment and training facilities as per curriculum requirement, run by the respective department for the training of postgraduate students.

♦ Apart from this, the departments also need to have a digital library and seminar hall with well-equipped high speed internet, Wi-Fi connected media room to have direct relay from in-house operation theaters and also to conduct or attend global scientific live programmes.

♦ NMC specified that 80 per cent of the hospital beds should be occupied throughout the year by patients requiring inpatient care.

♦ As per the rules, a minimum of 15 percent of the total beds in the Department imparting PG training should be Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds/High Dependency Unit (HDU) beds exclusively of that Department.

♦ Out-Patient Departments should have an adequate space and a sufficient number of examination cubicles, mentioned PGMSR 2023.

♦ Further, the Commission mentioned that there shall be one teaching room for each teaching department with a capacity to accommodate adequate number of students for clinical case discussions/demonstrations. Each such room shall have audio-visual facilities.

♦ It is also mandatory for the institutions imparting PG medical courses to have adequate in-house laboratory and imaging facilities for the training of post-graduate students, which should be fully run by the respective department.

Laboratories shall provide all the investigative facilities required and shall be regularly updated keeping in view the advancement of knowledge, science and technology and for research requirements.

♦ NMC mentioned that the imaging facilities shall be contemporary and in keeping with the latest technology available for diagnosis and interventions. These facilities shall be run by the Radio-diagnosis department.

♦ The institutes offering PG medical courses also need to ensure that records of investigations done in various Departments/Laboratories are kept in digital data format.

♦ Further, the rules mention that the Department having PG seats shall have a Departmental Library with essential books and journals as per curriculum requirements.

♦ As per the rules, it is also a requirement for a medical college to have a well-equipped air-conditioned Blood Bank capable of providing component therapy.

NMC mentioned that the Blood Bank and Blood transfusion services should conform to the guidelines of the National AIDS Control Organization and as prescribed in Schedule-F Part XII-B to the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945 amended from time to time. The Blood Transfusion services should be under the administrative control of the Department of Pathology of the medical college when there is no separate Department of Immuno hematology and Blood Transfusion

♦ Further, PGMSR-2023 mentioned that the faculty shall be full-time and shall not engage in private practice during the college hours. As per the rules, at least 75 percent attendance of the total working days has been made mandatory for the faculties.

♦ Every medical college shall have a prescribed number of cameras at the prescribed locations of cameras with Close Circuit Cameras, as prescribed by the National Medical Commission.

♦ NMC mentioned that every college/institute needs to have its own website which shall contain the details of Departments with available facilities, faculty with contact details, PG courses along with number of seats, details of the admitted students and details of the clinical workload (OPD, IPD and Surgeries) for each Department separately.

♦ NMC has also specified the additional requirements for the Standalone PG institutes. As per the document, Post-graduate medical colleges/institutes started under Section 3.1 (iii) of PGMER-23 (Standalone post-graduate medical college/institute) will have minimum of 220 beds

Such institutes also compulsorily need to have- Biochemistry, Pathology, Microbiology, Radio-Diagnosis, Anaesthesiology (When there are surgical speciality) departments.

NMC further mentioned that such post-graduate medical college/institution will have facilities for teaching the basic science subjects as per requirements.

♦ Ratio of recognized Post-graduate faculty to the number of students to be admitted for the post-graduate broad speciality courses: