PG medical seats up by 4,000

PG medical seats up by 4,000

These slots will be available in 2017-18 session itself, says Minister J.P. Nadda.

The Health Ministry, on Thursday, increased the number of postgraduate (PG) medical seats in India by 4,000. In a release, the Ministry gave no further details but said that an “an all-time record number of over 4,000 PG medical seats have been approved by the Government of India in various medical colleges and hospitals for the academic session 2017-18, taking the total number of PG seats available to 35,117.”

Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda informed that 2,046 seats were increased in medical colleges. “Considering the need for more PG seats in clinical subjects, the government had decided to amend the teacher-student ratio in clinical subjects in government medical colleges,” Mr. Nadda said in the press statement. This change alone had resulted in the creation of 1,137 extra seats in 71 colleges.

Many government colleges, out of the total 212, were sending their proposals and it was expected that at least 1,000 more seats could be added during March 2017, he said.

The increase in seats includes dental courses, which are equivalent to an MD or MS degree. According to the Ministry, the number of dental seats have increased by 2,147 in the last one year.

Mr. Nadda said there had been a total addition of 4,193 PG seats in the country so far. The Budget announcement of adding 5,000 PG medical seats was likely to be achieved soon, he said.

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Thanks to : THE HINDU – 03.03.2017