Tamil Nadu seeks NMC permission for 550 MBBS, 70 PG medical seats

Chennai: Tamil Nadu State Health Department has sought the National Medical Commission's permission to increase 50 MBBS seats in each of the 11 medical colleges in the State that were started in 2021.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that back in 2021, NMC granted its permission for 11 new medical colleges in Tamil Nadu. Due to this, most of the districts of the State had at least one medical college and 1650 new MBBS seats were added to Tamil Nadu and the State crossed the 5000 benchmark on the Government MBBS seats.

Apart from the MBBS seats, the State has also sought the NMC permission to start 70 postgraduate medical seats in 23 different specialities across 13 medical colleges in Tamil Nadu. Among all these specialities, the highest demand is for Anaesthesia and Gynaecology, followed by four seats in Paediatrics.

If the Apex Medical Education Regulatory Body grants its permission for the increase of 50 MBBS seats in each of these 11 medical colleges, altogether 550 MBBS seats will be added to the existing 36 government medical colleges taking the total number of seats to 5,600 for the academic year 2025-2026.

Also Read: NMC Approval to 44 new medical colleges, MBBS seats intake increase at 19 institutes

Commenting on the issue, the State Director of Medical Education Dr. J Sangumani on Monday told TOI that the increase in MBBS seats would enable more students to study medicine at a nominal cost.

"TN is among the states with the maximum number of medical colleges. With a policy to have one new medical college in every district, we have ensured govt colleges are equal to private and self-financing medical colleges," he told the Times of India.

There are altogether 76 medical colleges across Tamil Nadu. Among these 36 medical institutes are run by the Health Department and ESIC Medical College in KK Nagar and AIIMS Madurai offer 200 MBBS seats together. Apart from these, the State also has 38 self-financing medical colleges, private universities, and deemed universities.

Referring to the State's decision of seeking permission for 70 postgraduate medical seats in 23 different specialities, Dr. Sangumani added, "We have asked for six seats in each of these streams. The decision to increase these seats was based on demand within medical colleges."

Meanwhile, TOI has reported that an order has been issued asking six collectors to identify land parcels in their districts for the new medical colleges. Referring to this, a senior health department official added, "The process is on. Once land is identified and transferred to the health department, we can apply to NMC for permission." Therefore, admissions to these colleges will not start by 2025.

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