The Uneven Spread of Medical Colleges in India

What’s in Today’s Article?

• Background
• How are Seats Currently Distributed?
• Will States with an Excess Have to Start Shutting Down Colleges or Cutting Seats?
• Reasons Behind NMC’s Notification w.r.t. No. of Seats in States
• About National Medical Commission

Background

• The Central government, on multiple occasions, has been emphasizing on an equal distribution of medical colleges across the country.
• In August, a regulation issued by the National Medical Commission (NMC) put a hold on new medical colleges and expansion of existing medical colleges in states with more than 100 medical education seats per million population.
• This notification has received criticism from the southern states, none of which are now eligible for any more medical education seats.
• The NMC has argued that the guidelines will bring down regional disparities in the availability of doctors, and ensure effective quality education for all.
• The NMC says that with this ratio, there will be still potential for the addition of about 40,000 MBBS seats in the country id the medical colleges are evenly distributed.

How are Seats Currently Distributed?

• At least 13 states and UTs have more than 100 seats/million population.
• Tamil Nadu (11,225) has the most seats, followed by Karnataka (11,020) and Maharashtra (10,295).
• Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have exceeded the NMC’s norm by 46% and 63% respectively.
• The deficiency of medical college seats in relation to population is the most acute in Meghalaya, Bihar, and Jharkhand, all of which are in deficits of more than 75% from the NMC’s ratio.
• Meghalaya has only 50 seats for an estimated 33.5 lakh people; these numbers for Bihar and Jharkhand are 2,565 and 12.7 crore, and 980 and 3.9 crore respectively.
• Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state, has 9,253 seats, a deficiency of 61%.
• Over the last 9 years, the government has doubled the number of both undergraduate and postgraduate medical seats. Still, the there is a stark deficiency in some states.

Will States with an Excess Have to Start Shutting Down Colleges or Cutting Seats?

• No, the NMC’s notification says the ratio will be applicable only if new medical colleges are sought to be established or seats in existing colleges are sought to be increased from the 2024-25 batch.

Reasons Behind NMC’s Notification w.r.t. No. of Seats in States

• With the increase in number of private medical colleges, experts agree that there is a need to rationalize.
• This notification was necessary to ensure a good distribution of medical colleges across the country. Opening more colleges in, for example Bihar, could result in a reverse migration of staff from the southern states.
• Also, the NMC’s ratio is based on the WHO’s recommended number of physicians per unit of population.

About National Medical Commission

• The National Medical Commission is a statutory body established under the National Medical Commission Act, 2019.
• The NMC replaced the erstwhile Medical Council of India (MCI) which was established in 1934.
• Objectives of NMC:
  • Improve access to quality and affordable medical education;
  • Ensure availability of adequate and high-quality medical professionals in all parts of the country;
  • Promote equitable and universal healthcare that encourages community health perspective and makes services of medical professionals accessible to all the citizens;
  • Objectively assess medical institutions periodically in a transparent manner; 
  • Maintain a medical register for India;
  • Enforce high ethical standards in all aspects of medical services;
  • Have an effective grievance redressal mechanism.
• Composition of NMC:
  • 
  • NMC is a 25-member body, majority of them being nominated by the Central government.
  • Tenure of NMC members is four years (except for part-time members whose tenure is two years).
    • The NMC has 11 part-time members representing states or state medical councils.
  • The NMC chairpersons and other members, nominated by the Central government, cannot be renominated.
  • Any decision requires approval of the majority (minimum 13 out of 25) of the Commission.

Q1) When was Medical Council of India established?

The Medical Council of India was first established in 1934 under the Indian Medical Council Act, 1933. The council was later reconstituted under the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 that replaced the earlier Act.

Q2) When was MCI dissolved?

The MCI was dissolved by the President of India on 15 May 2010 following the arrest of MCI's president Ketan Desai by the Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) on 22 April 2010.

Source: Too many medical college seats in some states, too few in others: Why the central regulator wants this corrected