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150-seat cap on medical colleges done away with: MP Arora
Further, Arora said the NMC on December 19 wrote to the medical colleges, inviting applications for establishing new institutions intending to offer under-graduate course and increase in the number of UG seats in an established medical institution for the next academic year.
The National Medical Commission (NMC) has abolished the upper limit of 150 seats for the MBBS course, Rajya Sabha MP Sanjeev Arora said on Friday. Issuing a notification on December 19, the NMC, with its decision, enabled colleges to apply for additional seats based on their infrastructure, Arora mentioned.
The MP said he met the Union minister for health and family welfare JP Nadda in July this year and also Mansukh Mandaviya (the then Union health minister) in December last year on the issue. As a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare, MP Sanjeev Arora said he was instrumental in driving this change.
He said the assessment of the quality of medical education in India became paramount considering the escalating healthcare needs of this vast country with a diverse population and geography. As the demand for competent healthcare professionals continues to rise, ensuring that medical education meets the best standards becomes crucial to addressing the multifaceted challenges in the healthcare sector.
According to Arora, India has one of the largest medical education systems in the world. According to the Union ministry of health and family welfare, there were 702 medical colleges in the country in 2023-24. Medical colleges in India are concentrated in urban areas which creates a vacuum in the rural areas. The creation of medical colleges in rural areas can solve the problem of the dearth of rural access to medical education, he mentioned.
Further, Arora said the NMC on December 19 wrote to the medical colleges, inviting applications for establishing new institutions intending to offer under-graduate course and increase in the number of UG seats in an established medical institution for the next academic year.
