Fifty new medical colleges have been approved this year, adding another 8,195 seats for undergraduate students, taking the total number of such seats in the country to over 1,07,658, official sources said on Thursday.
With the addition of these 50 colleges (30 government and 20 private), the number of medical colleges in the country now stands at 702, they said.
50 medical colleges have been approved in Telangana, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Nagaland, Maharashtra, Assam, Karnataka, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, sources said.
The accreditation of 38 medical colleges across the country has been revoked in the past two-and-a-half months during inspections by the National Medical Commission’s (NMC) Higher Medical Education Council for alleged non-compliance with prescribed standards. sources said. They further added that show-cause notices have been issued to 102 medical colleges.
Of the 38 medical colleges, 24 approached the NMC and six have now approached the health minister. Colleges that have lost recognition can appeal once to the NMC and then to the Ministry of Health after the deficiencies and deficiencies are rectified.
Sources said the colleges were not found to be in compliance with the set norms and several deficiencies related to CCTV cameras, Aadhaar-linked biometric attendance procedures and faculty lists were noted during the inspections conducted by the UG commission.
According to government data, the number of medical schools in the country has increased significantly since 2014.
There has been a 69 percent increase in the number of medical colleges, from 387 before 2014 to 654 at present, Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar told the Rajya Sabha in February.
Further, there has been a 94 percent increase in the number of MBBS seats, from 51,348 before 2014 to the current 99,763, and a 107 percent increase in the number of postgraduate seats from 31,185 before 2014 to 64,559 now.
To increase the number of doctors in the country, the government has increased the number of medical colleges and consequently the number of MBBS seats, Pawar said.
