Tamil Nadu: Number of post graduation medical seats go up by 305 this year

Chennai: In what may be seen as a windfall increase in the number of post graduate seats for government medical colleges, there has been a rise in 305 seats this year, which is 26 per cent of the overall seats.

The state, which had around 1,188 seats during the selections in 2016, has added a great number of seats to the selection committee matrix, raising the number of seats available to 1493.

About 266 seats were increased due to the change in teacher student ratio, a source from the Directorate of Medical Education said. “Now, one teacher is allowed three students unlike the two earlier. A lot of paper work had to be done regarding that. Also, two seats were added for MGR University for its ‘Transfusion Medicine’ course, which also come into the seat matrix,” the source said.

Comparing the number of seats for Tamil Nadu with other states it is seen that only Maharashtra is ahead with around 14 seats extra.

“All the seats we got are in the clinical oriented specialty which directly relates to patient care. We also have specialties like Anatomy, Physiology that mainly deal with student teaching, for which we did not get an increase. Though we had applied for 442 seats, we managed to get 305,” added the source.

In a dynamic process, every year, colleges that fulfil the Medical Council of India (MCI) norms, tend to apply for more seats, for which a year-long process is undertaken which involves serious inspection by members of the council themselves.

“We got 31 seats following such inspections. Also, we were able to restore six MS general surgery seats in Thanjavur Medical College, which now come under the ‘Restoration Seats’ category,” the source said adding that it has amounted to a total increase of 305 seats.

Welcoming the initiative by the Central Government to add seats, Dr G.R. Ravindranath, Secretary, Doctors’ Association for Social Equality (Dase), said, “It is a phenomenal increase. In the Budget session it was announced that there would be an increase in seats in all states. The increase will surely serve to benefit the state. However, we will be unable to utilise all the seats due to the All India quota as we have to surrender 50 per cent of all our seats, which adds up to almost 800 seats. We therefore request the central government to make some legal arrangements for all states to be able to utilise all their seats.”     

Pudukottai Medical College is now being recognised and regularised by MCI for admissions, state health secretary J. Radhakrishnan said.

“Due to the increase in seats in the college, the state has in the past four years seen a dramatic increase of around 960 seats for MBBS.”

722 seats filled in PG counselling
The fourth day of PG counselling came to a close on Thursday with 113  PG/Diploma seats and 17 MDS seats filled.

Stating that a total of 722 seats have been filled, Dr Selvaraj, Secretary, Selection Committee, said, “40 seats are yet to be filled of the total of 762. The remaining will be filled in the second phase of counselling which will be held soon, along with the seats that were surrendered by deemed universities and private colleges.” It may be noted here that deemed universities and private colleges surrendered 50 percent of their seats on Monday.