BHUBANESWAR: Odisha has added 318 postgraduate (PG) medical seats in government medical colleges, taking the total from 620 to 938, after approval from the National Medical Commission (NMC), Health and Family Welfare minister Mukesh Mahaling said on Friday.
The expansion covers 14 disciplines, including general medicine, general surgery, anaesthesiology, paediatrics, orthopaedics, obstetrics and gynaecology, psychiatry, pathology and respiratory medicine. Five government medical colleges at Keonjhar, Sundargarh, Koraput, Talcher and Phulbani have received the approval to start PG courses for the first time, he said.
Dharanidhar Medical College and Hospital, Keonjhar, has been sanctioned 44 seats across 10 departments and Sundargarh Government Medical College 22 seats across eight departments. Saheed Laxman Nayak Medical College, Koraput, will have 28 seats across nine departments while Pabitra Mohan Pradhan Medical College, Talcher, gets 32 seats across 10 departments. Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati Government Medical College, Phulbani, has been sanctioned 27 seats across eight departments.
Several existing institutions have also seen their intake rise. At Pandit Raghunath Murmu Medical College, Baripada, PG seats have gone up from 20 to 53. Bhima Bhoi Medical College, Balangir, has increased its seats from 10 to 54 and Fakir Mohan Medical College, Balasore, from eight to 54. Eleven additional seats have been added at PGIMER and Capital Hospital, Bhubaneswar, 17 at SCB Medical College, Cuttack, three at Acharya Harihar Post Graduate Institute of Cancer, and 11 at VIMSAR, Burla.
“The expansion would strengthen medical education infrastructure and create more opportunities for specialist doctors in the state. Introducing PG courses in the five new colleges would promote regional equity and decentralisation of healthcare services,” Mahaling said. Health officials said the increased intake will widen opportunities for higher medical education and research while improving the availability of specialist doctors across Odisha.
