124 more PG medical seats in Karnataka

Maximum increase of seats seen in Maharashtra

The Medical Council of India (MCI) increase post-graduate (PG) medical seats in 10 medical colleges in the state by 124 in 2017-18 as part of the government’s decision to add 4,000 plus new seats in PG medical education.

The three biggest beneficiaries are Vijayanagar Institute of Medical Sciences, Ballari, which received approval for 24 new PG seats followed by Bangalore Medical College & Research Institute (21) and Employees State Insurance Corporation Medical College, Bengaluru (18).

Last month, Union Health Minister J P Nadda said 4,193 new PG seats would be
added in 2017-18, taking the number of seats for post-graduate medical education to 35,117.

Other colleges where the number of seats went up are Belgaum Institute of Medical Sciences (5); Government Medical College, Mysore (10); Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health (10); Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences, Hubballi (9); Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology, Bangalore (2); Mandya Institute of Medical Sciences (16) and Sanjay Gandhi Institute of Trauma and Orthopaedics (9).

The maximum increase took place in Maharashtra with more than 190 new seats followed by West Bengal with 164 seats and Andhra Pradesh with 143 seats. Tamil Nadu too received 124 seats. Around 1,900 new seats have been added all over the country.

To increase the number of PG seats, the government changed the teacher-student ratio in post-graduate courses in government medical colleges.

According to the ministry’s plan, more than 2,000 new seats will be created in the medical colleges, whereas the balance 2,100 seats will be in the Diplomate of National Board (DNB) streams that are equivalent to MD/MS courses.

In the budget last month, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced creation of 5,000 PG seats to make up for the shortfall of specialist doctors.