More than 300 Clinical Seats Vacant: Doctors demand special round of NEET PG Counselling

New Delhi: Doctors have expressed their concern over the huge number of vacant Postgraduate medical seats belonging to clinical specialities. Taking up this issue, the doctors under the umbrella of Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) recently approached the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Pointing out that more than 300 clinical seats are lying vacant, the doctors have demanded to conduct one special round of NEET PG Counselling on immediate basis. 

"The Health Ministry officials have assured us that they would look into the matter," Dr. Rohan Krishnan, the President of FAIMA Doctors' Association informed Medical Dialogues.

Recently, referring to the issue of vacant clinical seats, Dr. Krishnan had mentioned in a Tweet, "As more than 300 CLINICAL PG seats are remaining vacant in Govt Med colleges, it is the need of the hour to conduct one special round of NEET PG counselling immediately with No cut off."

He had also urged the Union Health Minister, and the National Medical Commission (NMC) to look into the matter on an urgent basis. Speaking about this, Dr. Krishnan told Medical Dialogues, "Previously, the vacant seats used to be given to the States. However, this year, they have changed the rules and as a result, more than 300 clinical seats are still lying vacant. In fact, seats belonging to prestigious institutes such as BJ Medical College Ahmedabad have not been filled as well."

Apart from the change of rules, Dr. Krishnan also blamed the lack of coordination between the States and the Central authority in charge of conducting the counselling. 

Explaining how these vacant seats ultimately mean the loss of resources, Dr. Krishnan further added, "For these clinical seats, every year, the Government spends around Rs 50-60 lakh for maintenance purpose. Therefore, these seats should not go waste at any cost."

"When we raised the matter and approached the Union Health Ministry last Friday, they assured us to look into the matter," he added.

It should be mentioned in this context that recently the Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has informed the Parliament that altogether 744 MBBS and 9783 PG medical seats remained vacant in the last three years.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that, the data provided by the Health Minister regarding the unfilled MBBS and PG medical seats revealed that in case of PG medical seats, the total number of vacant seats is much higher in comparison. While the PG medical seats are only limited in number, the data shared by the Health Minister revealed that a huge number of 9783 PG medical seats remained vacant in the last three years.

For the academic year 2019-2020, the vacant PG medical seats were highest in number. Back then, altogether 4614 PG medical seats did not find any taker. In the next two academic years i.e. 2020-2021 and 2021-2022, altogether 1425 and 3744 PG medical seats remained vacant respectively, revealed the data.

Also Read: 744 MBBS, 9783 PG Medical Seats remained vacant in last three years: Health Minister tells parliament