Number of PG medical seats in Tamil Nadu likely to cross 2000
CHENNAI: The Medical Council of India's Board of Governors has increased the associate professor-student ratio from 1:1 to 1:3 for postgraduate PG courses in all medical colleges from the 2020-21 academic year.
Consequently, with the amendment to the Postgraduate Medical Education Regulations, 2000, the total number of PG medical seats in the State is likely to increase to over 2,000 which will be up for grab from the next academic year.
In its notification sent to the State Health Department on Thursday, the MCI asked the State to apply for the increase of seats under this amendment before May 15.
Non-governmental medical colleges, which have been running for at least 15 years with a post-graduate programme for 10 years, and have had their post-graduate licence valid for five years renewed at least once, can also apply for increasing the number of seats under the amendment.
Earlier, the associate professor-student ratio was 1:1. Now, the MCI Board of Governors has increased it to 1:3, that is, three students for one associate professor. "Now, we have 1,758 medical seats. Using this opportunity, we are planning to seek as many additional PG seats as possible, maybe, a maximum of over 200 seats. If these are sanctioned, the total number of PG seats might cross 2,000," Dr A Edwin Joe, Director of Medical Education, told Express.
It may be noted that Tamil Nadu has the highest number of government PG medical seats in the country. "The communication came at the time when we all are set to ask for additional 158 PG medical seats for 2020-21. So, now we will prepare to meet MCI norms for sanction of these seats and approach them as it has also extended time for applying," Dr Edwin Joe added.
The officials said they were planning to write to the Health department to get the Election Commission's permission to conduct promotion and transfer counselling for associate professors. The counselling has for stopped after model code of conduct has come into effort.
Not only this, the MCI Board of Governors has also revised beds facility. "According to MCI norms, one unit of a particular department should have 40 beds. Beds in Intensive Cardiac Care Unit (IICU), Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU), Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) were excluded. But, now the Board has revised norms to include these beds also," said the official sources.