Following its efforts to improve healthcare facilities, Uttar Pradesh is now set to make its largest advancement in higher medical education by introducing more than 800 postgraduate medical seats in government medical institutions across the state starting from the 2024 academic session.
This initiative will primarily concentrate on enhancing the capabilities of institutions such as King George's Medical University (KGMU) and Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) in Lucknow, Government Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS) in Greater Noida, Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Memorial (GSVM) Medical College in Kanpur, as well as medical colleges in outlying districts.
"After giving a push to healthcare facility, Uttar Pradesh now plans its biggest ever leap in higher medical education by adding over 800 PG medical seats across government medical institutions in the state from 2024 session onwards," the offical page of UP government on X(formely twitter) tweeted.
To ensure approval from the National Medical Council (NMC), the Department of Medical Education has compiled a list of potential seat additions for each of the 35 medical institutions, along with addressing the deficiencies identified by the institution principals and heads. Up until 2015, the state had 933 postgraduate medical seats, and since then, over 450 seats have been incrementally added, bringing the total to over 1400. Furthermore, more seats have been consistently added each year, resulting in the current count of over 1700 seats across various specialties.
In addition to the 763 seats already proposed by the state government, efforts are underway to add another 150 seats. The Medical Education Department aims to augment specialized care for patients in medical colleges located in peripheral districts. Consequently, the proposal includes allocating seats in autonomous state medical colleges (ASMCs) that have been established within the last five years.
For instance, Rajashri Dashrath ASMC in Ayodhya is set to propose 24 seats, including four in pathology, two in microbiology, four in anatomy, and five in biochemistry. Similarly, the government medical college in Basti plans to propose 48 seats, with five in radiodiagnosis and three in ophthalmology.
If Uttar Pradesh succeeds in expanding its postgraduate seats, it will rank second in the country in terms of available PG seats, trailing only Maharashtra, which currently has 2,488 PG seats. Delhi follows with 1,895 seats, and Tamil Nadu with 1,836 seats. It's worth noting that each state typically sees an annual increase in the number of available seats.
