More MBBS seats in government colleges than private: Centre

The number of MBBS seats in government colleges remains higher than in private colleges for the past three consecutive years, raising hopes of medical education becoming affordable to a wider section of society.

There are 91,927 MBBS seats in 2022-23 of which 48,212 are in government medical colleges and 43,915 in private colleges — a gap of 4,297 seats, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said in a written response in the Lok Sabha on Friday.

A similar trend was seen in 2021-22 and 2019-20 when government colleges cumulatively offered around 4,000 more seats than private institutions.

“Such a trend may make medical education affordable to a larger section of society and some of the MBBS graduates may decide to serve in taluka level hospitals,” Oommen Kurian, a Senior Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, who works on health policy issues, told DH.

The number of government medical seats in 2020-21 and 2019-20 were 43,435 and 42,222 respectively as against 39,840 and 38,090 in the private sector.

“Better infrastructure and more seats in the public sector can help close some of the gaps that currently exist in the availability of doctors in big and small cities or villages,” said Kurian.

India currently has 13,08,009 allopathic doctors registered with the National Medical Commission as of June 2022. Considering 80% availability, there are just about 10.5 lakh doctors for India’s 140 crore population. This is lower than the WHO standard of having a 1:1000 doctor-patient ratio.

Mandaviya said the Centre had approved additional 3,495 seats in government medical colleges in 16 states, including 550 in Karnataka.

But despite the planned increase, the number of MBBS seats in government colleges in Karnataka is nearly 50% less than the private sector.

Out of 10,145 MBBS seats in Karnataka, as many as 6,995 are in the private sector as against 3,150 in government colleges.

Karnataka is the only state among the top five with the maximum number of undergraduate medical seats, where there are more seats in the private sector.

In the other four states – Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat — the seats are more or less evenly distributed or higher in the government.