After NMC nod to 11 New Medical Colleges, 1650 MBBS Seats to be Added to Tamil Nadu

NMC Committee has already completed inspection of 4 medical colleges with an intake capacity of 150 each and is expected to give a surprise visit to the rest of the 11 colleges within the next couple of days.

With this, most of the districts of the State will have at least one medical college and 1650 new MBBS seats would be added to Tamil Nadu and the State would cross the 5000 benchmark regarding the Government MBBS seats.

The central government had given permission to open 11 medical colleges in the state as part of the national mission to increase the number of medical colleges in the country, adds IANS.

However, the colleges will have to undergo inspection by the NMC appointed officials including doctors, before they get permission to commence classes.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that while providing the details regarding the medical colleges that are operative in the country, the Minister of State, Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) had revealed that Tamil Nadu currently has a total number of 52 medical colleges, out of which 26 are run by the Government.

The data presented before the Parliament further revealed that there are a total number of 3650 Government MBBS seats in the State.

Also Read: With 83,275 MBBS, 42,720 PG seats 558 Medical Colleges Operative in India: Health Minister

In the past 10 days the panel appointed by the Apex medical education regulatory body, NMC has visited four of the 11 new medical colleges in Namakkal, Krishnagiri, Tiruppur and Dindigul.

The team also inspects the general wards, the number of trained doctors, professors and teachers as well as the hostel facilities for both boys and girls. The attached hospital along with the patient flow is also a matter that would be studied in detail by the inspection team before granting license to a medical college.

The new medical colleges will provide "quality training" to aspirant doctors and the paramedical staff as well as provide super specialty treatment to even the village population and the poor without any cost.

Dr Nayarayana Babu, Director, Medical Education, Tamil Nadu said, "With the sanctioning of the 11 new medical colleges, other than the increase in the number of seats, the tertiary medical care will also improve giving a big boost to the general health of the state's people."

Further adding that most of these medical colleges will be associated with 700-750 bed hospitals able to provide quality patient care, Dr. Narayanababu R told TOI, "But these units don't have the experience of facing an inspection."

"Over the past few weeks, we asked existing medical colleges to mentor new colleges. For instance, a team from Salem Medical College-trained doctors at the Namakkal medical colleges in carrying out paperwork. They conducted mock inspections to find faults and rectify errors," he also mentioned.