In the coming academic year, Telangana and many other Indian states have the opportunity to increase the availability of Post Graduate medical seats with National Medical Commission (NMC) allowing non-teaching government hospitals to start offering specialty and super-specialty courses to MBBS finished graduates.
At present, Telangana has nearly 1300 PG medical seats and the new NMC guidelines will now make it possible for government hospitals, which do not have MBBS seats to offer but have enough medical infrastructure and experienced doctors, to start conducting PG medical courses.
In its notification, which was released a few days ago, the NMC, which is the regulatory body for medical education in the country, said that “Existing or proposed non-teaching hospitals owned and managed by government can start post-graduate courses without having undergraduate college, provided they fulfill the norms”.
The NMC in its notification said that the government hospitals must, however, follow the procedures that are prescribed in the
‘Establishment of New Medical Institution, Starting of New Medical Courses, Increase of Seats for Existing Courses and Assessment and Rating Regulations,2023, Post-Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023, Teachers Eligibility Qualifications in Medical Institutions Regulations, 2022”.
The government hospitals can adopt or follow curriculum of respective specialty, which have already been notified by Post-Graduate Medical Education Board (PGMEB).
“Once permitted, the course for the qualification will be considered recognized and seats permitted will be considered as recognized seats for registration of the degree awarded.
Institutions running such courses will be considered as accredited medical colleges/institutions for the said course of qualification,” the notification said.
The admission process for PG seats in such government hospitals will be conducted through the regular process i.e. NEET examination. The NMC will continue to monitor the standards of the medical education in such institutions.