Shortage of specialists: Health Ministry plans to increase DNB seats, relax norms for MD, MS seats
Under the plan, the government is looking to raise the number of Diplomate of National Board (DNB) seats, which are considered equivalent to post-graduate degrees in medicine (MS and MD), identify facilities where new seats can be created and relax norms for MS/MD seats.
New Delhi: In an attempt to address the shortage of specialists, especially in the rural areas of India, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is planning to increase the Post-graduate medical seats in India and to double the existing numbers.
A senior official in the Medical Education division of the Health Ministry has informed Money Control that the PG medical seats would get doubled over the next few years so that most of the doctors can opt for higher education after graduating with an MBBS degree.
Starting 2019-20, the medical education regulator has raised the teacher-student ratio from 1:2 to 1:3 for PG students, enabling colleges to admit more students. Officials say this criterion may be relaxed further.
Besides, the Government is also working to increase the PG seats by asking the private medical colleges to increase their DNB intake. In fact, the Government is trying to identify the government set-ups such as Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) and Railway hospitals so that new DNB seats can be introduced in those facilities.
A detailed blueprint in this regard is expected to come up in the next few weeks.
Recently, the Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya informed the Parliament about the total number of MBBS seats in India. As per the data provided by the Minister, there are a total number of 91,927 MBBS seats in 612 medical colleges in India.
However, in comparison, there are only around 46, 118 PG medical seats (Master of Surgery/ Doctor of Medicine) in the country. Therefore, only half of the total MBBS graduates get the opportunity to pursue higher medical education in India. Although after taking around 12,246 DNB seats into account, the total number of PG medical seats rises up to 58,364.
As per the latest media report by Money Control, confirming that the Health Ministry is working to double the number of PG medical seats in India to address the shortage of specialists, especially in the rural belt of the country, an official of the medical education division of the Health Ministry said, "Our initial homework suggests that the number of PG seats can be doubled over the next few years and it will ensure that majority of the MBBS pass-outs will stand a chance of securing a PG seat, which is not the case now."
The daily adds that the Government is working on increasing the total number of Diplomate of National Board (DNB) seats, which are deemed to be equivalent to PG medical degrees in Medicine (MS and MD).
While the Government is relaxing the norms to increase the PG medical seats, the official further informed that some hospitals with a bed capacity of 100 beds have been given permission for starting diploma courses. While commenting on the same, an official told the daily, "The number of such hospitals can also go up significantly."
Recently, the Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya informed the parliament about the Government's plans for increasing the total number of MBBS and PG medical seats in the country. Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that referring to the
Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) for 'Strengthening and up-gradation of State Government medical colleges for starting new PG disciplines and increasing PG seats', the Minister had informed the Lok Sabha that 5930 seats (4058 PG medical seats in Phase I and 1872 seats in Phase II) have been approved in 22 States/UTs in 2 Phases.
Further under the Central Sector Scheme for "Upgradation of Government Medical College by construction of Super Specialty Blocks", approximately 1000 Post graduate seats have been made available, the Minister informed.
The Government is taking these steps for increasing the total number of PG medical seats in order to deal with the acute shortage of specialist doctors in India and especially in the rural areas.
Money Control adds that until March 31, 2021, only 4,405 specialist doctors had been serving at the rural health centres. As per the rural health statistics of 2020-21, the available number of doctors in the rural community health centres, was around 80 per cent lesser than the required figures of around 21, 914.
While commenting about the matter, public health researcher Oommen C Kurian told the daily, "The country has been facing a severe shortage of specialist doctors, and hopefully more numbers will ease a major constraint."
At this outset, he referred to the recent change of policy in several states regarding the compulsory bond service after the MBBS. The State Governments are experimenting with the bond terms for PG and DNB candidates to ensure that required number of specialists are available at the district level, he informed.
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