939 PG Medical Seats likely to be added in Andhra Pradesh
Guntur: In order to deal with the severe shortage of specialist doctors in the State, the PG medical seats in Andhra Pradesh government medical college might get doubled in number soon.
According to a report by the TNIE, the Director of Medical Education M Raghavendra Rao has recently submitted a report to the State Government seeking the increase. If approved, a total number of 939 PG medical seats may get added to the medical colleges in Guntur, Nellore, Ongole, Kakinada, and Srikakulam.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that MoS Health Dr. Bharati Pravin Pawar recently informed Lok Sabha regarding the total number of PG medical seats in the country. The data presented by the Minister revealed that Andhra Pradesh has a total number of 2371 post-graduation medical seats in all specialties. Among these, 1065 seats belong to the Government medical colleges and 1306 seats belong to private institutes.
Currently, the state has 377 units in the teaching hospitals and these units include one professor, two associate professors and three assistant professors.
As per the latest media report by the New Indian Express, If the seats get increased, a total number of 184 units would be added to the State and along with this, 939 PG seats may get added to the State. Further, the increase in the number of Units and staff may also increase the number of super-specialty seats up to 33.
Already there are vacancies for 15 posts of professor, 111 associate professor, and 30 assistant professor at the teaching hospitals of the state.
The daily further adds that the report by the Director of Medical Education further indicates that in order to get additional PG seats, it would be necessary for the colleges to increase number of beds and also recruit adequate staff.
Currently, the teaching hospitals have a total number of 11,274 beds. However, it can be expanded up to 13,376 beds, meaning the institutes have 2,102 beds unofficially. On the other hand, it has been estimated by the State that 7,783 more beds are necessary in the State. So, if the unofficial beds get taken into account, the bed capacity in the state needs to be ramped up to 5,681.
The number of beds and units should be enhanced depending on the population, adds NIE. As this hasn't been done in the past seven years, the situation would only get normal if the PG seats, and the number of beds and units are increased.
While commenting on the issue, Raghavendra Rao told the daily, "Recently, we submitted a report to the government on the requirements at the teaching hospitals as per the latest estimates. The number of specialist doctors in the State will increase significantly in the coming days as the PG medical seats will be enhanced. With this, specialist services will be available in rural areas as well. If the number of PG seats increases, the teaching hospitals will be developed on par with private hospitals."
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