Too full: Jeevak hostel at Patna Medical College and Hospital. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Aug. 26: Cracking medical entrance test is easier than getting a room in health cradles’ hostels. The first-year students of Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) have learnt it hard way.

The new batch of students at PMCH is struggling to get berths in the college’s undergraduate hostels. Reason: the final-year students who have completed their MBBS course are refusing to vacate the rooms.

According to sources in the hospital, there are three undergraduate hostels for boys in PMCH — Nagarjuna, Jeevak and Dhanwantari — with a capacity to accommodate 100 boys each.

“There are 100 seats for MBBS course in the college. It means there are 500 undergraduate students in the college at any point of time. While two girls’ hostels — Mother Teresa and Kasturba — are sufficient for girl students, there are not enough rooms for male medicos,” said a source.

One of the students, who have taken admission to the college after the first counselling of Bihar Combined Entrance Competitive Examinations, told The Telegraph: “We have got admission in state’s most coveted college but are yet to be allotted berths in the hostel. It’s not pinching us now but it will be very difficult to manage once the classes start next week.”

He added that a visit to the undergraduate hostels had disillusioned him of the dreams he had been nurturing about the infrastructure of the college. “The hostels that medicos are made to live in are not at all fit for living. They score poorly on sanitation, safety and facilities. It is an irony that getting into even these hostels is so troublesome,” he said.

Admitting that lack of space in the undergraduate hostels was a major issue, PMCH principal Dr N.P. Yadav said: “The undergraduate hostels on the PMCH premises are maintained by the college while the postgraduate and interns’ hostel are taken care of by the hospital. As our hostels are better maintained, students often refuse to move to interns’ hostels, which are worse. It is correct that we are not in a position to provide rooms to all the undergraduate students. We have issued notices to the final-year students who have finished the MBBS course to vacate the hostel to make room for the new entrants,” Yadav said.

The principal said the college had prepared a proposal to demolish the oldest boys’ hostel — Jeevak — and construct a three-storeyed building in its place.

“The Jeevak hostel’s roof is made up of clay tiles and we cannot add floors to it. We have asked the public works department (PWD) officials to prepare a detailed project report for the new construction,” Yadav added.

He said the new building would have a capacity to accommodate 300 students. “Once the project report and estimate is made by PWD, we will send it to state health department for final approval,” said Yadav.