The National Medical Commission (NMC), the nation's top medical education regulator, has proposed a relaxation in the requirement that a medical college be established after at least two years of operation of a "fully functional" hospital in an effort to loosen up the rules for starting new medical colleges. This exemption will only be available to organisations that have prior management expertise managing a medical college and 1,000-bed multi-specialty hospital in another part of the nation.
The person setting up the college must, in accordance with the current Establishment of Medical College Regulations, "own and manage a fully functional minimum 300-bedded hospital with necessary infrastructural facilities capable of being developed into a teaching institution... the hospital should be fully functional for a minimum period of two years."
In a draft notification, the NMC has now stated that "universities and deemed universities having experience of establishing and running fully functional recognised medical colleges and hospitals of 1,000 beds or more, for at least two years, anywhere in India," are exempt from the requirement that a hospital is "fully functional for a minimum period of two years."
For a period of 30 days, the NMC has requested public feedback on the draft notification. The action is viewed as a component of the national effort to enhance the number of medical seats. From little over 51,000 seats in 2014 to nearly 92,000 seats for the 2022–23 batch, the number of MBBS seats in the nation has grown. The government has backed the creation of new AIIMS, new colleges with existing district hospitals, and an increase in the number of seats in current colleges.