NMC must frame guidelines for setting up new medical colleges in states with fewer than 100 MBBS seats per million population: Parliamentary panel
New Delhi: A Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare recently urged the National Medical Commission (NMC) to frame clear guidelines for establishing new medical colleges in states with fewer than 100 MBBS seats per million population.
The panel highlighted the challenges in the medical education sector in India in its 167th report to the Rajya Sabha.
While the national average is 75 MBBS seats per million population, states like Bihar have only 21 seats per million, whereas Puducherry has nearly 2,000 seats for a population of about one million, forcing many students to seek medical education outside their home states or abroad.
Further, expressing concern over affordability, the panel noted that MBBS education costs Rs 60 lakh to Rs 1 crore in many colleges, effectively excluding poorer families. It recommended applying state government fee structures to 50 per cent of seats in private medical colleges, regulating the remaining seats through state fee committees, and introducing need-based scholarships.
The report also highlighted faculty shortages, especially in remote areas, calling for better incentives, job security and structured career progression. It endorsed NMC’s Aadhaar-based biometric attendance system to curb ghost faculty, supported expansion of domestic medical education to reduce reliance on foreign medical graduates, reiterated backing for the NExT exam, and proposed an AIIMS-led mentorship model to ensure uniform education standards nationwide.
Flagging the seat distribution issue, the department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare in the 167th report presented to Rajya Sabha on December 11 stated that while some states have a high concentration of medical seats, some are severely lacking against the national average of 75 MBBS seats per million population
According to PTI report, the panel suggested the government open up new medical colleges to provide quality medical education in Delhi so that students from the national capital do not have to travel to other states or even other countries to pursue medical education.
Not accepting the Action Taken by government on the its recommendations/observations contained in the 157th Report on "Quality of Medical Education in India", the panel strongly recommended that the NMC must come forward with guidelines for establishing new medical colleges in states where there are fewer than hundred MBBS seats per million population.
It observed that Karnataka, Telangana and Tamil Nadu have approximately 150 MBBS seats per million and Puducherry has close to 2,000 or even more MBBS seats for a population of just about one million.
While some other states have less than 50 seats per million population, Bihar has only 21 seats per million, it stated in the report.
"The committee further suggested that the government may consider to plan to open new medical colleges to provide quality medical education in Delhi so that students from Delhi have not to travel to other states or even other countries to pursue medical education," the report said.
The Committee appreciated the UG-MSR 2023 guidelines regarding setting up of new medical colleges providing approval for annual intake capacity of 50/100/150 MBBS seats.
Notwithstanding the same, it stated that as per the guidelines, given that the infrastructure and faculty position required are in place, a college, whether old or new, may be considered for granting permission to increase the undergraduate MBBS seats up to a maximum of 250 in a phased manner.
It further recommended that adequate attention must be given for opening of medical colleges in underserved districts which can be encouraged to use the locally available government medical colleges and hospitals for imparting healthcare services.
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