Relaxation of Norms by MCI for Starting New Medical Colleges

The Union Health Ministry decided to relax norms to establish new medical colleges. On Dec. 23, 2011, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Union Health Minister asked Medical Council of India (MCI) to prepare and submit a list of medical reforms including land required to establish medical colleges.

In nine cities such as Kanpur, Pune, Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Ahmadabad, medical colleges can be started on a 10 acre plot. The Health Ministry is planning to expand this plan to state capitals of Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Orissa, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar as these states are known for their poor health facilities and limited human resources.    

These state capitals will have split campuses including medical colleges and hospital within 10 km of each other. The hilly and northern-eastern states need 20 acre plot to start a college.

Density of each medical college is 38.41 lakhs people in India. There are about 315 medical colleges across 188 districts. The density of medical colleges is worst in some states such as 68 lakhs in Rajasthan, 115 lakhs in Bihar, 95 lakhs in Uttar Pradesh and 73 lakhs in Madhya Pradesh.    

According to an official of Health Ministry sometimes hospitals don’t have adequate space to start a college and they have requested MCI to relax the norms to split the campus with adequate transportation and telecommunication facilities.

India has the highest number of medical schools in the world as around 18,000 specialists and 30,000 doctors are produced every year in India. But its annual output of around 100 graduates per medical college is low in comparison to 149 in Western Europe, 220 in Eastern Europe, 110 in North America and 125 in Central Europe.    

China with 188 medical colleges outstands all by producing 1,75,000 doctors annually and an average of 930 medical graduates per college.

A phased addition of about 187 medical colleges is recommended by the High-Power Expert Group (HLEG) of the Planning Commission engaged in universal health. According to HLEG under phase A, around 59 new colleges will be established in 15 states like Orissa, Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand, Gujarat, UP, West Bengal, Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Meghalaya, Assam, Chhattisgarh and Bihar.

In two additional phases i.e. 2022-20 and 2020-2022, around 70 more medical colleges will be started in 13 states by 2022 and 58 colleges by 2012. Thus, by 2022 there will be 25 lakhs individuals per medical college including states like Bihar, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.

Top 10 Medical Colleges in India for 2011