Asserting that the NDA Government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken several steps to ease access to quality medical education in the country, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Thursday said that the number of medical colleges has increased from 387 to 648, MBBS seats by 87 per cent and that of PG by 105 per cent in the last eight years.
He said, change can be seen happening at every nook and corner of the country. With this momentum and coordination among stakeholders, a holistic ecosystem of education will be created in the country.
Highlighting the change in the medical education sector, Mandaviya said, "While India had a limited number of 387 medical colleges in 2014, the system was riddled with far too many problems."
"There is a paradigm shift from input-based to outcome-based approaches and reforms under the Modi government. Consequently, we now have 648 medical colleges in 2022 with a whopping 96 pc increase in the number of Government Medical Colleges (GMC) alone and a 42 pc increase in the private sector, since 2014," he said.
"At present, out of 648 medical colleges in the country, 355 are government and 293 are private," Mandaviya said adding that, "MBBS seats have also seen a massive 87 per cent increase from 51,348 in 2014 to 96,077 in 2022. Similarly, PG seats have observed an increase of 105 per cent with 31,185 seats in 2014 to 63,842 in 2022."
He said with a vision to create 10,000 MBBS seats in government medical colleges, 58 colleges across 16 states have been approved with an increase of 3,877 MBBS seats.
Similarly, to increase PG seats, 72 medical colleges in 21 states and UTs have been approved in phase I, with an increase of 4,058 PG seats, he said adding that similarly, to create 4,000 PG seats in the GMCs, in phase II, a total of 47 colleges have been approved with an increase of 2,975 PG seats.
To correct regional imbalances in the availability of affordable and reliable tertiary healthcare, Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) was launched, which targets the establishment of All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) like institutions and the upgradation of existing GMCs by establishing super-speciality blocks in a phased manner, the minister said.
22 new AIIMS and projects for the up-gradation of 75 government medical colleges were taken up under the scheme, he said. A common entrance test- National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for 'one country, one examination, one merit' system introduced in 2016 with a common counselling system allowed students from anywhere in India an opportunity to study in any medical college in the country based on merit, he said.
The National Medical Commission (NMC) was also created to replace the highly corrupt body of the Medical Council of India (MCI). Before the NMC Act, there was no legal mechanism to regulate the fee charged by private colleges.
"Now the guidelines in respect of fees for 50 per cent seats in all colleges including Government, Private and Deemed Universities have been released by the NMC, " Mandaviya said.
Parallelly, reforms are ongoing in the sectors of nursing education, dental education and allied and healthcare professions, he said.