Government announces a boost in number of MBBS and PG medical seats

Union minister for health and family welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad has announced that MBBS and post-graduate medical seats will be increased by 50 and 100 percent respectively. These changes emphasize the Ministry’s focus on the medical education sector in order to create more medical manpower.

Since the UPA’s rise to power in 2009, the availability of medical seats has gone up by 40 percent for MBBS and 80 percent for post-graduate seats. The projected increase in seats next year (2013-2014) will create a record of sorts in the medical education sector.

The Minister urged young medical graduates to voluntarily seek out rural assignments. Close to 99 percent of medical students choose to work in urban areas, with just a mere 1 percent who choose to dedicate their services to people in rural areas. Rural areas have an acute need for diagnoses, medical aid, preventive healthcare practices and the promotion of nation-wide health campaigns.

These new reforms will tackle problems at every level - overcoming the shortage of the faculty in hospitals, granting land, equipment, infrastructure, bed occupancy or increasing the student -teacher ratio or increasing student intake for medical seats (both MBBS and PG).

The Minister also announced that in the last two years the Ministry has sanctioned over 269 nursing schools in order to combat the shortage of nurses and auxiliary nurse wives (ANMs). These schools are situated mostly in remote, inaccessible districts in the country. The project is estimated to cost around Rs 2,030 crore. However, these schools are expected to churn out over 20,000 nursing graduates annually.

Meanwhile the government is also focusing on increasing the level of paramedics in the country by opening centers of excellence in paramedical education. Also, the government has sanctioned the establishment of a national institute of paramedical sciences in Delhi. Furthermore, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Bhopal, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Bhubaneswar, Bhagalpur and Aurangabad will all receive regional institutes for paramedical training. Once these institutes are fully functional, an estimated 10,760 paramedical graduates are expected to flood the industry, annually.

Sources have revealed that the government is seeking greater participation from the private sector, claiming that it would not be able to shoulder all of the responsibility. The private sector’s participation was stressed upon, specifically in the funding for higher education. Along with working on improving the quality of teaching talent in the industry, the private sector can also help by funding weaker and impoverished sections of society have the choice of higher education.

In order to revamp the education system, greater focus needs to given to research in the health sciences by equipping researchers with world class facilities – libraries, research labs and computer facilities.

Source: The Times of India