500 medical colleges needed in five years: Regulator

NEW DELHI - Projecting a need for 500 medical college in the next five years, the Medical Council of India (MCI) Saturday recommended that such institutions should each have at least 10 acres of land for a college and hospital and not more than 250 students.

“The council has given the central government certain recommendations and it is up to the government to notify them. The board of governors has done its exercise,” MCI Chairperson Shiv Kumar Sarin told reporters.

As per the new regulations suggested, a medical college should have at least 10 acres of land to build a college and hospital. Earlier, the medical colleges were asked to have at least 25 acres of land.

In small towns and cities, the hospital should be built within 5 km radius of the college, the Council recommended.

“In colleges where there are 50 students, there should be 300 beds, for 100 students 300 beds, 150 students 700 beds, 200 students 900 beds, and for 250 students 1,100 beds,” the recommendations said.

According to the new recommendation, a medical college can have 250 students. Earlier, the number of students admitted was 200.

It also puts emphasis on increasing the retirement age of the professors in medical colleges. Currently, the retirement age is 65 years. The new regulations recommend a five-year extension for the professors.

“If these regulations are followed, 8,000-10,000 medical graduates would increase annually in the country. As of now, there are 35,000 medical graduates in the country,” Sarin said.

He said the last date of receiving the applications pertaining to establishment of medical colleges and hospitals is Sep 30. He also informed that they received 90 applications till September last year and this time they are expecting more applications.

Sarin added that the country needs 500 more medical colleges in the next five years and the government should also pitch in, instead of depending on the private sector.

The MCI chairperson said that India has a shortfall of 7.5 lakh doctors.

“We have 35,000 medical seats, 314 medical colleges and 23,000 doctor graduates in our country and compared to our population the availability of hospital and doctors number is very less, this issue should be addressed immediately,” Sarin said.

Referring to World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations, Sarin said for every 1,000 people there should be one doctor. Our country will take take another 15 years to achieve this standard, he said.

Devi Prasad Shetty, member board of governors, MCI, said: “Medical colleges are less in north and eastern regions of India as compared to south and west. About 136 colleges are there in south alone followed by west with 58 while north India has only 71 colleges and east is the lowest with 36.”

“The government stopped constructing medical colleges 15 years ago about 54 percent of the medical colleges are in private hands,” he said.

As per MCI statistics every year 4.5 lakh women die during child birth due to lack of trained medical staff. In our country each gynaecologists deliver 72 babies a day, our country produces 28 million babies a year.

“India should add 10,000 medical seats each year between 2012-16 to get at least 50,000 medical undergraduates over five years. This can be achieved only be adding 100 new medical colleges every year for five years,” an MCI official said.