Over 4,000 PG medical seats created in a year, says govt

The Centre on Thursday claimed to have added more than 4,000 post graduate medical education seats in a year, creating a record.

With the addition of 4,193 seats in 2017-18, the total number of PG seats available to the students would be 35,117, according to an official statement.

“The Budget announcement of adding 5,000 PG medical seats in a year is likely to be achieved soon,” Union Health Minister J P Nadda said.

Of the total increase, 2,046 seats are in medical colleges. In order to increase the number of PG seats, the government had earlier changed the teacher: student ratio in post-graduate courses in government medical colleges. This change alone has resulted in the creation of 1,137 extra seats in 71 colleges.