National Medical Commission (NMC), the apex body in medical education has decided not to grant approval for increased Post Graduate (PG) seats of Department of Surgery, Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH). Confirming the development, Dr Sudhir Gupta told ‘The Hitavada’, “The department has 22 Post Graduate seats. We had applied for 6 more seats. NMC team conducted the inspection but due to some deficiencies, we failed to get increased seats. The department shall continue to have 22 PG seats.”

 

The Post Graduate Section of National Medical Commission has issued a letter addressing Dean of GMCH, stating, “As per your application the Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB) has reviewed the Assessor’s report regarding faculty, their experience, publications, teaching facilities, infrastructure available in GMCH for starting of course MS (General Surgery) for the academic year 2022-23 but it found certain loopholes.” The (MARB has pointed out the loopholes including faculty deficiency of two Assistant Professors, seven surgeries done on the day of assessment, 2,036 surgeries performed by 36 surgeons (28 faculty), the number of surgeries/faculty has been as few as less than 2 per week. Presently, 66 Post Graduate students are present at any time (22x3).

 

The surgeries have dropped even from COVID-19 to non-COVID-19 period. The clinical workload is insufficient to train even the existing numbers. After assessing the aspects, the Medical Assessment and Rating Board held deliberations and decided not to grant additional seats. Dr Sudhir Gupta also said, “We have not lost all the seats which is a thing of satisfaction but we should have got more seats. If increased, the department would have got more PG students and more hands too. The PG activity plays an important role. We will try to remove the loopholes.”