BHUBANESWAR: Odisha has added 318 postgraduate medical seats in government medical colleges after the National Medical Commission granted approval, taking the state's total from 620 to 938, Health and Family Welfare Minister Mukesh Mahaling said on Friday.
The expansion covers 14 disciplines, including general medicine, general surgery, anaesthesiology, paediatrics, orthopaedics, obstetrics and gynaecology, psychiatry, pathology and respiratory medicine.
Five government medical colleges at Keonjhar, Sundargarh, Koraput, Talcher and Phulbani have been cleared to run PG courses for the first time. Dharanidhar Medical College and Hospital, Keonjhar, has been sanctioned 44 seats across 10 departments, while Sundargarh Government Medical College gets 22 seats in eight departments.
Saheed Laxman Nayak Medical College, Koraput, will have 28 seats across nine departments, Pabitra Mohan Pradhan Medical College, Talcher, 32 seats across 10, and Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati Government Medical College, Phulbani, 27 seats across eight. Eleven seats have been added at PGIMER and Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar, 17 at SCB Medical College, Cuttack, three at Acharya Harihar Post Graduate Institute of Cancer and 11 at VIMSAR, Burla.
Intake at established colleges has also risen sharply. Pandit Raghunath Murmu Medical College, Baripada, moves from 20 seats to 53, Bhima Bhoi Medical College, Balangir, from 10 to 54, and Fakir Mohan Medical College, Balasore, from eight to 54.
Mahaling said the expansion would strengthen medical education infrastructure and create more opportunities for specialist doctors. Introducing PG courses at the five new colleges would promote regional equity and decentralisation of healthcare services, he said. Health officials said the extra seats would expand research and training avenues and improve specialist availability in the state.
In Andhra Pradesh, the commission sanctioned 161 additional PG seats in 11 government medical colleges for the 2026–27 academic year, covering 15 specialities. The colleges had sought 163 seats and 161 were cleared, an approval rate of 98.77 per cent. The state government said it had recruited teaching staff, raised bed strength and provided equipment and infrastructure to meet the commission's norms.
Orthopaedics received the largest share at 27 seats. Dermatology, venereology and leprosy, ENT and pathology got 16 each, radio-diagnosis 14, and paediatrics and general surgery 12 each. General medicine, anaesthesiology, ophthalmology and respiratory medicine received eight each, while emergency medicine, obstetrics and gynaecology, psychiatry and radiation oncology got four each.
Dr Vishnu Vardhan, director of medical education, said the seats would be filled through counselling for postgraduate admissions. In the previous academic year, 150 seats were proposed from 13 government colleges and 142 were sanctioned after scrutiny. The new seats in emergency medicine, respiratory medicine, psychiatry and radiation oncology are expected to strengthen specialist cover in those areas.
(With inputs from media reports)