Health Dept plans to expand medical seats in Gujarat

After being turned down by the Medical Council of India (MCI) last year for setting up three new medical colleges in the state, Gujarat government is now mulling to add another 500 seats in medical education next year.

It recently received approval for around 500 medical seats from the MCI. What's more, Gujarat is also planning to set up its own medical research council in lines with MCI.

"After our proposal for setting up three new medical colleges at Sola, Bhavnagar and Vadodara got turned down last year, we have been in touch with the MCI. We had asked them to review the decision,” said Jay Narayan Vyas, health minister of Gujarat. He added that the state has received approval for 500 medical seats in the state last week, and is now planning to add another 500 seats next year.

MCI has approved 150 seats each at medical colleges in Sola and Bhuj as well as at the Gujarat Cancer Research Society run medical college in Ahmedabad. In addition, 50 seats have been increased at the Bhavnagar Medical College.

Vyas said that the state is expecting approval for the new medical college at Gotri in Vadodara. “We will try to add another 500 seats next year, as new medical colleges are expected to come up at Patan, Valsad etc,” he added.

The government is working on creating a state-level body on the lines of the MCI that will be empowered to approve post graduate medical courses.