Hardly anything has changed at Patna Medical College in the past eight months, casting a shadow on continuance of 150 MBBS seats.

Sources said the premier medical college had been permitted to increase 50 seats from 100 on some conditions set by a team of the Medical Council of India (MCI) during their visit in March. With the MCI planning a visit this month, the college authorities think that the additional medical seats might have to be pruned for non-compliance of the riders.

The sources said the MCI team would visit the college to renew the permission of its 50 additional MBBS seats. According to rules, if the MCI increases seats of any medical college, it visits the medical college concerned annually for five years continuously during which it decides whether to renew the permission of additional seats or not. During this visit, if the MCI finds any deficiency, it may refuse to renew the permission for taking admission for additional seats.

The MCI’s decision was quite surprising as earlier the college had to submit a compliance report along with an undertaking by the state chief secretary for rectification of deficiencies pointed out by the MCI.

College principal N.P. Yadav said the team could visit the college anytime in November according to the MCI’s letter.

“There is only one development. A new hostel is ready and so far as I know that it would be handed over to the hospital administration within a week or 10 days,” said a senior professor of the medical college who wished to be not named.

He added: “We have also heard that the health department wants to increase the number of the MBBS seats at all the medical colleges but it is nothing less than irony they do not even care about availing the basic facilities for running a medical college.”

Yadav admitted that the college still have some deficiencies. “We still have 34 per cent shortage of teachers.”

A junior doctor of the college on the condition of anonymity said: “There are 550 undergraduate and 600 postgraduate students but around 30 students do not get hostel facility because of space problem”