Gujarat: State run medical colleges to get 400 additional PG seats

AHMEDABAD: Gujarat Government Medical Colleges have been granted 400 additional post graduate seats, in order to raise specialist doctors in the state run hospitals.Presently, of the 1500 PG seats available in the state, 1300 are with government medical colleges. Interestingly the increase comes despite 30% vacant faculty positions in the Gujarat. It also needs to be mentioned here, that the seven self financed medical colleges in the state, (run by state-controlled Gujarat Medical Education and Research Society (GMERS) and other self-financed colleges like NHL Municipal Medical College) will not get any additional PG seats.

The state government has also accepted the Medical Council of India(MCI), notification, which raises the intake capacity of PG students for every professor and associate professor.

The MCI notification directions state that one professor is to be allocated three PG seats, as against the two, earlier; and an assistant professor will be allocated two PG seats against the one granted earlier.

The apex body directive is to be implemented from the next academic year, starting from April 2017-18. The Council has also asked for submission of professor and assistant professor details to compute the exact increase in post graduate seats.

"This is a positive decision as more PG seats will be mean more specialist doctors to serve the people of the state. At BJ Medical College itself, there will be a benefit of 50-odd seats by this decision," said, Dean, Medical Faculty, Gujarat University, Dr Mahesh Patel.

Experts have welcomed the increase in post graduate seats for the benefit it augurs in the form of specialist doctors to the state, as well as, the benefits it accrues for students. Presently, PG medical seats in clinical branches at private colleges command a hefty capitation fee ranging between Rs 50 lakh and 1 crore. This is over and above the annual college fees, reports the TOI.