Number of MBBS seats has increased by 75%, PG by 93% since 2014: Govt

New Delhi: The number of under-graduate medical seats has gone up from 51,348 before 2014 to 89,875 now, an increase of 75 per cent, and that of post-graduate seats has risen by 93 per cent during the same period, the government said on Tuesday. Indian students who go abroad to pursue MBBS and obtain foreign medical qualifications have to clear the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination to be registered as medical practitioner in India, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said in a reply to a written question in Rajya Sabha.

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The minister said the government has taken several steps to further increase the availability of doctors in the country. "The number of UG seats has increased from 51,348 before 2014 to 89,875 seats as of date which is an increase of 75 per cent. The number of PG seats has increased by 93 per cent from 31,185 seats before 2014 to 60,202 now," Mandaviya said.

Steps taken to increase the number of seats include a centrally sponsored scheme for establishment of new medical colleges by upgrading district/referral hospitals, under which 157 new medical colleges have been approved and 71 are already functional.

It also includes a centrally sponsored scheme for strengthening or upgradation of existing state government or central government medical colleges to increase MBBS and PG seats, and a central sector scheme for upgradation of government medical colleges by construction of super specialty blocks.

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A total of 75 projects have been approved and 55 completed. Under the central sector scheme for setting up of new AIIMS, 22 AIIMS have been approved. Under-graduate courses have started in 19 of them, Mandaviya said.

Further, for rapid growth in the number of allied medical seats in the country, the government has enacted the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions (NCAHP) Act, 2021 and an interim commission has been notified under the provisions of the Act, the minister stated.