Patna Medical College and Hospital

Patna, June 6: From next year, more medicos would have the scope of specialising. The central government has recommended an increase in seats in three postgradutate departments of Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH).

PMCH principal Dr N.P. Yadav told The Telegraph that physiology, anatomy and microbiology departments would have four additional seats each. “A team of the Union health and family welfare ministry recently conducted a survey of these departments and recommended a host of changes to upgrade facilities and infrastructure in these departments,” he said.

Sources in the hospital said the central government had allotted Rs 2.69 crore to the medical college for its facelift. They added that the Medical Council of India (MCI) would inspect the health hub before August 31. Thereafter, it would formally give PMCH the permission to increase the seats.

“Admissions against the increased seats will start from the academic session starting in 2012,” a source said.

Senior health department officials said the MCI had earlier decided that the medical college with a bed capacity of over 1,000 could admit up to 250 students against the existing 150 students. The colleges were, however, asked to fulfil other ancillary and teaching requirements before increasing their admission capacity.

“Two leading medical colleges of the state, including PMCH and Darbhanga Medical College Hospital, qualify for the provision, provided they improve their infrastructure and meet the requirement of faculty members, nurses and paramedical employees. The other four medical colleges at Muzaffarpur, Gaya, Bhagalpur and Nalanda can also derive benefit from the decision after creating provisions for more than 1,000 beds. Now, their bed strength is much less than the MCI-mandated number,” an official in the department said.

Sources said the MCI took the decision to increase the admission capacity of the medical colleges taking into count the urgent need of doctors in Bihar apart from some other states in the country. But the number of seats in the medical colleges in Bihar could not be increased from this academic session, as they did not fulfil all the criteria.