Centre makes good on Budget promise as Union Cabinet approves 10,000 new medical seats

An increase in the number of doctors will help improve India’s doctor-patient ratio, which is well below the World Health Organisation standard of 1:1000 if only allopathic doctors are taken into account.

New Delhi: Fulfilling the budget promise, the central government on Wednesday approved over 10,000 additional seats in undergraduate and postgraduate medical colleges.

The approval by the Union Cabinet is for 5,000 PG seats and 5,023 MBBS seats in medical colleges for which Rs 15,035 crore was sanctioned. The target is to increase these seats in government institutions by 2028-2029, for which the Union Health Ministry will issue detailed guidelines later.

The Union Health Ministry, however, claims a much better doctor-patient ratio by incorporating 7.5 lakh Ayush doctors in the mix.

India currently has 1,23,700 MBBS seats and 76,174 seats, but the number of doctors is still limited compared to the population load, particularly in areas beyond metro cities and urban pockets.

Government data shows that despite a 100 per cent increase in MD seats in the last ten years, rural India still suffers from a nearly 70 per cent shortage of specialist doctors. The shortfall with respect to sanctioned posts in rural Community Health Centres is maximum for surgeons (73 per cent), followed by physicians (69 per cent), paediatricians (68 per cent), and Obs & Gyn specialists (61 per cent).

Presenting the budget in February, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the creation of 10,000 additional medical seats this year in line with the Narendra Modi government’s promise of adding 75,000 medical seats in five years.

Earlier, the National Medical Commission relaxed the infrastructure and faculty norms for setting up new medical colleges and increasing the number of seats in undergraduate and post-graduate courses. These include recognising the DNB qualification as a faulty appointment to take care of the shortage.