NMC nod for 14 MD seats at North Bengal Medical College and Hospital

New Delhi: Bringing good news to the Postgraduate medical aspirants in West Bengal, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has given its permission for 14 more doctor of Medicine (MD) seats at the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital (NBMCH). 

NMC, the Apex medical education regulatory body has already issued a letter of intent on August 5 and as per the NMC letter the college can start admission in the increased seats from the academic year 2022-2023.

The decision from NMC has come after the medicine department had sent a proposal to the Commission for increasing the number of PG medical seats. Following this, an NMC representative visited the college on June 23 for inspecting the infrastructure.

Established back in 1968, NBMCH is one of the oldest healthcare teaching hospital in the North Bengal region of West Bengal. It offers both Undergraduate and Postgraduate medical education. The college started offering PG medical courses back in 2004 in five disciplines including Anatomy, Physiology, Community Medicine, Pathology and Anesthesiology.

Since then, several other postgraduate courses were added to the institute in various disciplines including Forensic Medicine & Toxicology, General Medicine, General Surgery, Gynaecology & Obstetrics, Orthopaedics, Paediatrics, Ophthalmology,Radiodiagnosis, Psychiatry, Otorhinolaryngology and other subjects.

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As per the latest media report by The Statesman, NMC has recently issued the letter of intent for 14 MD seats at NBMCH. Along with this, the MD seats at the college would increase to 18.

While issuing the letter of intent NMC has specified that the college should comply with the NMC norms and provide all infrastructure in terms of teaching and non-teaching staff, buildings, equipment, and hospital facilities .

The Commission has also clarified that the college should send the acceptance letter within one week from the date of issue of the letter. 

While commenting on the recent development regarding the NMC nod for 14 MD seats, the NBMCH patient welfare committee chairman Gautam Deb told the daily, "The NMC has increased 14 more seats for MD. It is a very important development. We had applied for the increase of the MD seats at the NBMCH. The NMC finally gave its consent and will play a crucial role."

Amid the NMC nod for the college, the matter has taken a political turn since an MLA of BJP claimed that the initiatives in terms of increasing seats at the medical college had been by him. In fact, the daily adds that as per the letter, Darjeeling MP Raju Bista had written to the Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and sent the copy of the letter to the President of the Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB) of NMC, Dr. BN Gangadhar on June 27.

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