Postgraduate seats: Government to seek rethink on Medical Council of India decision

Postgraduate seats: Government to seek rethink on Medical Council of India decision

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The government has decided to approach the Medical Council of India (MCI) to reconsider the decision on the cancellation of 94 postgraduate seats in the five government medical colleges.

The government is under pressure as the private medical colleges have made it clear that their postgraduate seats will not be made available under the government quota for the present academic year.

This is the first time that the state has lost such a big share of postgraduate seats. "The government has now decided to approach the MCI to reconsider the decision. The present decision has come following its inspection of these colleges. Hence, we will request the MCI to have a re-inspection," said a health department official.

The MCI had three years ago come out with a stipulation that two postgraduate seats can be sanctioned for a professor's post. This was earlier 1:1. "Based on this the health department had increased the postgraduate seats even without fulfilling the MCI norms. This has now put the medical education in trouble as many of the colleges failed to fulfill the MCI norms during its inspection," said Kerala Government Medical College Teachers' Association (KGMCTA) state president Dr K Mohanan.

The MCI had cancelled the registration of the 94 PG seats citing several reasons which include lack of faculties, facilities and bed strength.

The MCI report has mentioned that there are several vacancies in the entry cadre (junior resident doctors and assistant professors) of medical colleges. "There exists 380 vacancies in the medical education service and the government has increased the PG seats without fulfilling even the basic needed posts of faculties. Now the private medical colleges have made it clear that they are not ready share their seats under government quota. This will mean that the MBBS graduates will have only limited chances for getting PG seats," said Dr Sabari Nath P S, state coordinator of Kerala Medical Postgraduates' Association.

The Kozhikode medical college lost PG seats in general medicine, psychiatry, obstetrics and gynaecology (OBG), community medicine, microbiology, physiology, respiratory medicine and anaesthesiology. The medical college at Allappuzha lost PG seats in general surgery, paediatrics, general medicine, OBG, anaesthesiology, ortho and dermatology. The medical college at Thrissur lost seats in ophthalmology, anaesthesiology, general surgery, general medicine, microbiology and forensic medicine.

The Thiruvananthapuram medical college lost seats in general surgery, pathology, paediatric surgery and cardiology, while the medical college at Kottayam lost seats in streams like physiology and microbiology.