JIPMER PG seats to be raised next year

Postgraduate seats in Jawaharlal Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) will be increased from 165 to 200 from the next academic year, said Keshav Desiraju, Union Health Secretary.

Speaking to Express, Desiraju said the decision was taken as India desperately needed postgraduate doctors. Currently, India produced around 42,000 MBBS and 22,000 post graduates.

To meet the need for doctors under the XIIth five-year plan, assistance would be provided to State governments to upgrade district hospitals with teaching facilities. The hospitals with a minimum of 300 beds would be eligible for the assistance, said Desiraju. Further assistance would be given to State governments for increasing undergraduate and postgraduate seats.

Maintaining that doctors coming out of private medical institutions rarely come to serve in government health centres in rural areas, he said this decision has been taken to strengthen medical care in rural areas. In States like UP, Bihar and Jharkhand, doctors were not available in rural health centres and villages.

The Ministry would also be giving support to State governments to upgrade facilities at the cancer institute by providing Rs 120 crore, out of which Rs 90 crore would be the grant from the Ministry of Health and Rs 30 crore from the State government. Besides, for upgrading cancer treatment in tertiary care centres, Rs 45 crore would be provided out of which Rs 33.75 crore would be the grant from Ministry and Rs 11.25 crore from the State government. With regard to tackling of non-communicable diseases, mass screening programmes had been initiated for 100 districts and it had now been extended to another 100 districts, he said.

For strengthening medical education, Parliamentary committee had given many observations on the draft bill for establishing a National Commission for Human Resources for Health (NCHRH) under the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. It was planned to be an overarching regulatory body for medical education and allied health sciences with a dual purpose of reforming the current regulatory framework and enhancing the supply of skilled manpower in the health sector. The observations of the Parliamentary Committee were being reviewed by the government, said Desiraju.

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