Govind Sharma
JAMMU, Mar 6: Medical Council of India (MCI) today approved enhancement of 42 seats in PG (Broad Specialty) courses for the year 2018-19 in clinical subjects for Government Medical Colleges of J&K, in the light of amendment in teacher-student ratio. GMC Jammu will get 15 seats, 2 more than last year.
According to official sources, while 27 more PG seats have been approved for Government Medical College (GMC) Srinagar, GMC Jammu got 15 more PG seats.
Earlier, there were 158 PG seats in GMC Jammu but with the approval of 15 more seats, this figure will reach to 173. On the other hand, GMC Srinagar, which had earlier 148 seats, will now have 175 seats with MCI approval to enhance 27 more seats.
Giving departmental wise details of GMC Srinagar, sources said seats of MD Anesthesia have been increased from 15 to 18, MD Medicine from 18 to 19, MD Paediatrics from 13 to 15, MD Psychiatrics from 5 to 8, MD Radiodiagnosis from 8 to 10, MS ENT from 6 to 8, MS Ortho from 5 to 16 and MS Ophthalmology from 6 to 11.
In GMC Jammu, seats of MD Anesthesia have been increased from 5 to 10, MD Dermatology from 5 to 7, MD Ob and Gynae from 12 to 13, MD Paediatrics from 5 to 6, MS ENT from 9 to 13, MS Ophthalmology from 10 to 11 and MS Surgery from 19 to 20.
Pertinent to mention here that MCI in a circular issued on December 22, 2017 had invited applications from Principals/Deans of various Government run medical institutions across the country including GMC Jammu and Srinagar for one time increase in PG seats in clinical courses, under revised student-teacher ratio.
Sources said earlier 2 students could be allotted to a Professor, one to an Associate Professor and one to an Assistant Professor (having eight years experience) but according to relaxed rules, a Professor can now take 3 students, an Associate Professor (unit holder in the department) may be allotted 2 students while an Assistant Professor can take only one student like earlier.
They regretted that like previous year, when it managed to get only 13 more PG seats, the institution failed to reap the benefit of amendment in teacher-student ratio, which was done by the Union Government in a bid to produce more qualified doctors, who can serve in the periphery and various newly announced new Medical Colleges.
They attributed this failure of the institution to shortage of DPC confirmed faculty members. Elaborating more, they said that out of nearly 230 faculty members of the institution, more than 90 faculty members are on Own Pay Grade (OPG) posts while as MCI considers only DPC confirmed faculty on any post for the sake of head count and ignores faculty members on OPG posts.
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