MCI recommends 501 additional PG medical seats

Medical Council of India (MCI) has recommended an addition of 501 PG medical seats, cut across government and private colleges in the country. The recommendation comes for the 2016-17 academic session, and reportedly the Ministry of Health has been intimated on the matter. At present 25,577 PG medical seats are available in the country.

MCI has considered only those colleges for the increase in PG seats, which had earlier applied to the council. After an MCI inspection only; the recommendation for the said colleges has been forwarded to the health ministry. The health ministry is likely to take a decision by end of February.

Reportedly, concerning the matter of cancer treatment, there are just five seats for radiotherapy. The issue of having more doctors to address the increase in the number of cancer cases still remains a concern.

This development follows the earlier revision by the MCI of the minimum standard requirements in several disciplines in order to address shortage of doctors in the country, especially in disciplines like mental health where requirement of physical infrastructure is not as crucial as in some of other disciplines.

As reported by the Express, according to the proposal, which has been sent to the government, Tamil Nadu — with 82 more seats — is likely to see the biggest jump in the number of seats, followed by 43 each in Haryana, Gujarat and Maharashtra. Chhattisgarh and West Bengal might only see an increase of 2 seats each. An increase in the number of seats has been proposed in all existing PG disciplines