The move is aimed at addressing the scarcity of doctors in the country. (Representational image)
The Union Health Ministry has approved new amendments according to which all the existing medical colleges will have to start PG courses from the academic year 2020-21. The amendments have been made to the Post-Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2000, of the Medical Council of India (MCI). The regulations will also apply to new medical colleges, besides dealing with existing private and government colleges. They will be required to start PG courses within three years of receiving recognition for running undergraduate courses. The amendments have been approved by the ministry and the new regulations would to be notified soon.
A senior Health Ministry official said that institutions failing to do so will lose their recognition. An inspection will be carried out by the MCI before giving its approval for increasing seats for 2019-20 academic session.
“The move is aimed at addressing the scarcity of doctors in the country. Once the amendments get implemented, around 10,000 post-graduate seats would be created over the next four years,” the official said. The official said medical colleges will have to apply for new seats for starting P-G courses.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Human Resource Development (HRD) Prakash Javadekar released the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) India Rankings 2018 for eight categories at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. This year, medical was introduced as a new category. On top of the list was All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi with 90.71 per cent. In the top 10, two institutes were from Delhi and two from Uttar Pradesh, however medical colleges from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu dominated the list.