Anantapur Medical College may have more seats from next year

Anantapur: Medical Council of India (MCI) team has expressed satisfaction towards the facilities, according to norms, in Anantapur Medical College to increase the number of medical seats.

At present, Anantapur Medical College (AMC) has only 100 MBBS seats and a proposal has been lyingpending with the MCI, since the past few years, seeking to increase the number of seats in the drought hit area. While few Medical Colleges, from other parts of the region, succeeded to satisfy the teams by reportedly providing temporary facilities, and succeeded to get more number of seats, the government owned medical colleges failed in such ways. The teams had refused to increase seats during previous visits.

However, it has been proposed to increase  around 50 additional seats in MBBS for the upcoming academic year and a total of 150 medical seats are expected. A three-member committee from the MCI had inspected Anantapur Medical College and has also been connecting  to the General Hospital here two days ago, to study feasibilities to increase the medical seats in the college.

A senior official from the general hospital observed that the team expressed satisfaction about the facilities available at the government owned medical college where they had shown all genuine records and no chance to hire doctors and nursing staff from outside, unlike few private colleges who managed to get additional seats.

Anantapur Medical College was established 18 years ago but was unable to get additional beds and permissions, along with additional staff.  Even as the MCI cleared line for PG seats in pharma, microbiology and forensic wings, the other key departments were ignored due to lack of facilities in 2018.

An average of 2,000 in-patients and outpatients were recorded every day.  But, the General Hospital did not have  enough doctors and nursing staff, along with additional beds, according to MCI norms, sources said.

In addition, the Super Specialty Hospital which was a part of post bifurcation packages, under progress, could help the AMC gain additional strength.

The hospital was being constructed with an estimate Rs 75.25 crore near the Cancer Hospital named as upgradation of Government Medical College under ‘Pradhan Manthri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana’ (PMSSY) under  Phase-III.  All specialised branches will be in the hospital.  The super specialty hospital will soon be part of and an advantage to increase the number of seats in the medical college.