42,182 PG medical, 9795 DNB, FNB, 2432 CPS Seats in 2020-21 academic year: Health Minister

The number of PG medical seats has significantly increased from the last two years having only 28,387 seats in 2018-19 and 33,004 PG medical seats in 2019-20 academic sessions.

The information to this effect was recently shared in a Rajya Sabha session when Dr. L. Hanumanthaiah asked the Minister of State in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoS Health) about the total number of PG medical seats available in the country for the last three years, State-wise and year-wise.

Read Also: 547 MBBS, 8,616 PG Medical, 6,091 BDS went vacant in 2018-19, 2019-20: Health Minister

At the recent session, the minister presented the data in his reply before the parliament members. As per the information provided by the concerned authorities, the State-wise details of available seats in PG medical courses for the year 2018-19, 2019-20, and 2020-21 academic years are as follows:

For the 2020-2021 academic year

In this academic session of 2020-2021, the total number of PG medical seats available in the medical colleges including AIIMS and other INIs is 42,182. There are also 9795 DNB/FNB seats and 2432 CPS Diploma seats available in the country.

The maximum number of PG medical seats are in the state of Karnataka with 5379 seats followed by Maharashtra with 4922 and Tamil Nadu with 4255 as the top 3.

The tally is then followed by the states of UP with 2836 seats, Delhi with 2715, Andhra Pradesh with 2371, Telangana with 2237 and Gujarat with 2127.

The next lot of more than 1000 seats include Rajasthan with 1841, West Bengal with 1758, Uttarakhand with 1732, Kerala with 1587 and Madhya Pradesh with 1548 PG medical seats. Bihar has over 856 MD, MS seats while Orissa has 852. Puducherry has 817 seats for students.

More in the north, Punjab has 734 seats, Chandigarh is having 557 seats, JnK, Ladakh has 568, Haryana has 554, Himachal Pradesh is having 318 seats for PG medical courses.

In the northeast, Assam stands at 715 seats, the maximum in that region. Manipur has 210 seats while Tripura, Meghalaya and Sikkim have the lowest of the whole lot with 84, 35 and 22 seats respectively.

Meanwhile, Goa and Chhattisgarh have 119 and 206 PG medical seats this academic year.

For the previous academic year 2019-20

In 2019-20, the country had a total of 33004 seats allotted to PG medical courses. The maximum was noted to be in the state of Maharashtra with 5213 seats followed by Karnataka with 3879 seats and Tamil Nadu with 3468 seats.

The list comes down to UP which had 2202 PG medical seats followed by Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh with 1957 and 1956 seats respectively. Telangana had 1760 seats while West Bengal and Rajasthan had 1527 and 1521 PG medical seats.

Kerala had over 1472 while Delhi and MP followed with 1336 and 1111 PG medical seats.

The 1000 streak ended here following with Bihar at 740, Punjab 634, Assam, 558, JnK Ladakh 544, Haryana 521, Puducherry, 381, HP, 291, Jharkhand 237, Uttrakhand 234, Manipur 205, Chandigarh 131, Chhattisgarh 126 and Goa with 122.

Tripura, Meghalaya and Sikkim again had the lowest of the whole lot with 65, 23 and 9 seats respectively.

For the academic year 2018-19

In this academic session, the total was 28,387 seats. Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu maintained their stand in the top 3 with 3702, 3587 and 2941 PG medical seats available that year for medicos across the country.

The list was then followed by the states of Gujarat 1989, Andhra Pradesh 1748, UP 1741, Telangana 1589, Rajasthan with 1492, West Bengal with 1468 and Kerala with 1403 PG medical seats.

Delhi came next with over 976 seats followed by MP with 802 and Odisha with 743 PG medical seats,. Bihar had 710, Punjab had 644, Haryana and 530 PG medical seats.

Dropping down, Assam had 482, JnK Ladakh had 346, Puducherry had 338, Jharkhand had 225, Uttrakhand had 212 and Manipur had 203 seats for students. Chandigarh followed the tally with 125 seats and Goa with 122 seats. Chhattisgarh had only 119 seats.

This year as well, Tripura, Meghalaya and Sikkim were having the minimum number of seats with recorded 30, 14 and 22 seats respectively.

In all these academic sessions- 2018-19, 201920 and 2020-21, the states/ UTs of Andaman and Nicobar islands, Aruncahcla Pradesh, Dadar and Nagar Haveli, Lakshadweep and Mizoram have been recorded with no PG medical seats allocated to their medical colleges.

During the parliamentary session, the Minister was also asked whether it is a fact that the Government has made it mandatory for all the medical colleges to start Post Graduate (PG) courses within three years from the date of the MBBS recognition, if so, the details

To this, the minister replied, "The erstwhile Board of Governors in supersession of Medical Council of India (BoG- MCI), with prior approval of the Central Government had amended Post Graduate Medical Education Regulations (PGMER), 2000 to provide that it shall be incumbent upon medical Colleges/Medical Institutions to make an application for starting Postgraduate medical education courses within three years of the grant of recognition of its MBBS qualification."

On whether Government has taken the necessary measures to ensure that adequate seats are available in MBBS and PG medical colleges in the country, the minister informed the members that the Central Government has taken several steps to increase the number of medical seats in the country which include:

I. Centrally Sponsored Scheme - Strengthening/ up-gradation of existing State Government/Central Government Medical Colleges to increase MBBS and PG seats.

II. Minimum Standard Requirements for setting up of Medical College have been rationalized in terms of land, faculty, staff, bed strength, equipment and other infrastructure.

III. Enhancement of maximum intake capacity at MBBS level from 150 to 250.

IV. DNB qualification has been equated with the corresponding MD/MS and DM/M.Ch to take care of the shortage of faculty.

V. Enhancement of age limit for appointment/ extension/ re-employment against posts of teachers/dean/principal/ director in medical colleges up to 70 years.

VI. The teacher-student ratio has been rationalized to increase the number of PG seats.

VII. By amending the regulations, it has been made mandatory for all medical colleges to start PG courses within 3 years from the date of their MBBS recognition /continuation of recognition.

VIII. Colleges are allowed to apply for PG courses in clinical subjects at the time of 4th renewal. It will serve to advance the process for starting PG courses by more than 1 year.

IX. Provision has been made in the Regulations to offer less number of seats to the applicant medical college, in case, it falls short of minimum prescribed requirements of applied intake to avoid wastage of human resources.

X. A Consortium (a group of 2 or up to 4 private organizations) has been allowed to establish a medical college.

XI. To promote the establishment of medical colleges in PPP mode, the Viability Gap Funding Scheme has been launched.

State-wise and year wise available PG Seats in Medical Colleges

Besides the above, there are 9795 DNB/FNB seats and 2432 CPS Diploma seats available in the country.

During the last five years from 2015-16 to 2020-21, 16193 PG Seats and 5092 DNB/FNB seats have been created in medical colleges in the country.