State-run RIMS in Ranchi has started doing groundwork to ask for 250 MBBS seats from the Medical Council of India (MCI) from the academic session 2017-18, 100 more than its existing number.

How to get 100 more seats was the main focus of the 42nd governing body meeting held on Thursday at the director's conference hall in RIMS.

Chaired by health minister Ramchandra Chandravanshi, and attended by K. Vidyasagar, principal secretary, health; RIMS director B.L. Sherwal; and heads of various RIMS departments, the governing body meeting took many decisions to improve facilities for patients, students and doctors.

"We are eyeing 250 MBBS seats (for RIMS). So, we have to make arrangements to prompt the MCI to recommend the seats," said Vidyasagar.

"Our focus is to develop manpower and infrastructure and bring down faculty crunch. Decisions taken today (Thursday) will bring about an overall improvement in service delivery and educational ambience," RIMS director Dr Sherwal said.

For the ease of patients, the meeting approved free online registration. From now, angiogram will be free for people in the BPL category while others will pay Rs 3,000. Rates of dental and dermatology procedures were revised too.

The governing body also approved a new course for doctors of medicine in neonatology and allocation of 30 beds to neonatology.

RIMS also designated three existing faculty of paediatrics (Dr A.K. Sharma, professor, Dr Mini Rani Akhouri, associate professor, and Dr P.K. Choudhary, assistant professor) as faculty of neonatology. "We are also starting a new course, Master of Chirurgiae (advanced surgery) in paediatric surgery," Sherwal said.

The approval to create posts for medical record department technicians, a shortage pointed out by the MCI earlier, was also given in the meeting.

The meeting proposed to make the superspeciality wing of RIMS fully functional at the earliest by hiring experts and staff on contract or on deputation from government superspecialty hospitals for a certain period till the regular appointments were made.

A go-ahead for hiring persons retiring from RIMS or other hospitals as faculty member was also given. It was decided to hire faculty, medical officers, staff nurses, paramedical and office staff for departments of surgical oncology, surgical gastroenterology, plastic surgery, critical care, clinical haematology, radiology (in superspecialty), anaesthesia (in superspecialty and dental institute), neonatology and emergency medicine.

"Creating faculty and nursing staff to set up a full-fledged cardio-thoracic department according to suggestions by experts from AIIMS in New Delhi, for ICU and burns ward, was also approved," he said.

The meeting also approved two OT complexes and modifying wards and doctor rooms in the superspecialty wing as suggested by AIIMS experts.

"The proposal to upgrade the trauma centre at a cost of Rs 13.25 crore, including building a link between the trauma centre and the main building, ramp, lecture theatre, skills lab, registration counter, police checkpost room, drivers' room and parking area, among other things, was also accepted," Dr Sherwal added.

A nod for donation of bodies to anatomy department for research was also given. RIMS will incur the cost to transport and preserve the body.

The health minister was also asked to enforce the medical protection bill in the state, but Chandravanshi said it was beyond his individual power.