State gets 106 more PG medical seats

Vijayawada: Postgraduate medical education in the state received a major boost with the addition of 106 new PG medical seats in government medical colleges. Health minister Y Satya Kumar Yadav said in a statement on Saturday that the National Medical Commission (NMC) had approved these additional seats in various broad specialty courses, including General Medicine, Gynaecology, and other disciplines.

Of the newly-sanctioned seats, 60 have been allotted to five new government medical colleges and 46 to existing ones. With this, the total number of PG broad specialty seats in government colleges has risen to 1,763, in addition to four diploma courses currently offered.

The state government had earlier sought NMC’s approval for additional PG seats by submitting college-wise applications. Following this, NMC has now sanctioned 106 new seats across 11 government medical colleges. These include 20 seats each in General Medicine and Gynaecology, 26 in Paediatrics, 12 in Anaesthesia, four in Radiology, and several in other departments.

For the first time, new government medical colleges have received PG seats since the formation of the coalition government. The distribution includes 12 seats for Machilipatnam, 16 each for Nandyal and Rajamahendravaram, 12 for Vizianagaram, and four for Eluru.

Among the existing colleges, Guntur Medical College received four seats in Radiology, Andhra Medical College four each in Emergency Medicine and Paediatrics, Anantapur Medical College 15, Kadapa seven, Kurnool four, and Srikakulam eight additional seats.

The Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences (SVIMS), Tirupati, also secured approval for 13 more PG seats. These include courses in Anaesthesia, ENT, Gynaecology, Orthopaedics, Ophthalmology, and Paediatrics.

Minister Satya Kumar Yadav said he personally discussed the issue of seat allocation in government medical colleges with Union health minister J P Nadda.