Patna, April 8: Medicos have a reason to cheer about. Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) is all set to start three new postgraduate courses from this academic session.

The health cradle will start MD (Doctor of Medicine) courses in anaesthesiology, biochemistry and microbiology. Four seats will be up for grabs this session for the MD course in anaesthesiology. Three seats will be available in MD in biochemistry. Two students will be able to pursue the MD course in microbiology this session.

Dr Arun Kumar, the director of IGIMS, said the instituti-on today received a letter of permission to start the three postgraduate courses from the Medical Council of India (MCI).

“We had applied for the MD courses in anaesthesiology, biochemistry and microbiology. The MCI has given us the green signal for the courses. In the first academic session, the intake of students in these courses will be four, three and two, respectively. Thereafter, the number of seats will hinge on the strength of the faculty,” he said.

At present, the institution offers MCh (Magister of Chirugig) in urology. It is a super specialisation course for doctors. The course was introduced in 2009.

The health centre has also applied for starting DM (Doctoratus and Medicinus) in gastro-medicine, another super specialisation course. An MCI team inspected the health hub for the course, Dr Kumar said. The permission to introduce the course is awaited.

“National-level tests will be conducted for admission to the postgraduate courses on the pattern of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, and Sanjay Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow. Some of the seats will be reserved for the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe students as per the Bihar government policy,” Kumar said.

The institution is also expecting an approval to start MBBS courses in the facility. The MCI had recently carried out a two-day inspection of the institute to check if the facility was ready to start a full-fledged medical college. A three-member team inspected earlier this week and sent its report to the MCI headquarters in New Delhi. Depending on the report sent by the team, the health ministry is expected to decide on the fate of the proposed medical college.

Sources said the institute had applied for an intake of 100 students starting next academic session. As per the MCI standards, an institution needs at least 25 acres of land, University Grants Commission’s recognition and adequate number of medical staff to start a medical college. IGIMS have all these in right proportions. But the institution’s plan to convert it into a 500-bed hospital, a must for a medical school with a capacity of 100 students, is hanging in balance because of funds crunch.