KOLKATA: Bengal government is planning to increase 650 post graduate medical seats in different medical colleges in the state.
State's director of medical education (DME) Debasis Bhattacharyya had written to the principals of most of the newly set up medical colleges on February 17. The DME is slated to convene a meeting on this issue on Friday since the augmentation of most of the PG seats may happen in these medical colleges.
CM Mamata Banerjee had flagged the issue of paucity of doctors, particularly specialist doctors.
Several PG students from outside Bengal doing their post-graduation return to their home states after completing their specialisation since admissions are now done through NEET-PG. Officials said there are now 1,658 seats in the state for PG courses.
Even, there are plans to increase some seats in the old medical colleges which had been functional for long. There will be new courses like nuclear medicine and sports medicine along with medical education at IPGMER-SSKM hospital where in each of these disciplines there will be four seats.
With emergency medicine gaining prominence, the DME has proposed four seats each in Medical College Kolkata, CNMCH, RG Kar, NRS, Burdwan, Bankura, North Bengal and Midanpore medical college hospitals. Again geriatric care is also an important issue with increased ageing population and plans are on for four new seats in geriatric medicine at NBMCH.
The DME wrote to the principals of Diamond Harbour, Purulia, Rampurhat, Raiganj, Cooch Behar, Malda and Murshidabad medical colleges to submit necessary requirements for increasing the PG seats as it needs additional manpower and infrastructure along with extra bio-medical equipment.
Last December, the health department had written to the Centre with the proposal for raising PG seats in state medical colleges under the centrally sponsored scheme of strengthening and upgradation of the existing medical colleges. The state had set up five new medical colleges in 2018 at Diamond Habrour, Rampurhat, Purulia, Raigunj, Cooch Behar.
