Berhampur, May 29: The City Hospital here has been declared as a satellite unit of MKCG Medical College and Hospital by the state government.

The decision has been taken to help MKCG get Medical Council of India's (MCI) permission to increase seats.

At present, MKCG has 150 MBBS seats and efforts are on to increase it to 250.

"According to MCI guidelines, the daily inflow of outdoor patients should be 2,500 to 3,000 to increase MBBS seats. But the number here is 1,500. However, if the daily outdoor patients at the City Hospital are added to it, it would cross 2,500," said Arun Kumar Dandapat, principal of MKCG Medical College and Hospital.

The state government has sent a proposal to this effect to the MCI.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik had said during the golden jubilee celebrations of the medical college in 2012 that efforts were on to increase MBBS seats in MKCG by another 100.

The college has fulfilled the infrastructure development requirements of the MCI. But the number of outdoor patients in the college was not enough. "We have solved this problem by declaring the hospital a satellite unit," said the principal.

"We have informed the MCI about our status and facilities. A team may visit our hospital soon. We are preparing ourselves," said additional district medical officer (medical) Saroj Mishra. Mishra said: "We have 32 departments, help desk and other centres, The inflow of outdoor patients has increased from 1.63 lakh in 2011-12 to 2.71 lakh in 2015-16."

If the MCI accepts the proposal, specialist doctors and MBBS students of MKCG will visit City Hospital to treat the patients, said a source.