Jamshedpur, May 23: After going through a gamut of changes, including a tie-up with a medical insurance company for non-employees, Tata Main Hospital may be poised for another big leap ahead.

The hospital might become an examination centre for the National Board of Examination with most of its senior doctors being selected as examiners.

A three-member team from the board that visited the hospital today was pleased with its infrastructure and suggested that the hospital could become an examination centre in future.

The national board of examination conducts and awards postgraduation medical courses and is the highest authority in the country in this field.

Members of the board —Arun Kumar Agarwal, Achal Gulati and controller of examination D.B. Dayal — expressed satisfaction in the hospital’s internship programmes for medical students. At present, eight subjects from the hospital are accredited with the board while two other subjects — ophthalmology and radiology — would be given accreditation soon. “We have been here since last evening and inspected the hospital. It has the necessary facilities for almost all kind of treatment. It has been well kept, neat and has a high bed occupancy level. The recovery rate in the hospital is also high,” said Agarwal. The team also conducted a one-day workshop for students and teachers of the NBE to familiarise them with the new system of objective structured clinical examination (OSCE).

“This is a relatively new system of examination introduced by the board to be fair to all examinees. In this type of examination, the same questions are asked to all candidates across the state. This reduces chances of complaints from candidates that someone got an easy question while another received a difficult one,” said Dayal.

About 70 people from West Bengal, Jharkhand and Orissa participated in the workshop. Similar workshops were also held in Patna and Calcutta recently.

“The board members’ visit and the workshop here is a good sign for the hospital. It not only speaks volumes for the hospital but such programmes will urge doctors here pursue higher studies and be involved in research work. Once doctors from the hospital are selected as examiners they will have to keep themselves upgraded. It is bound to bring positive changes in the hospital,'' TMH general manager Manoj Prasad said.