: Andhra Pradesh Health Minister Meets with Mansukh Mandaviya, Requests NMC Regulations to Be Relaxed

Delhi, New: Meeting with Union Health Minister Mandaviya on Wednesday, Andhra Pradesh Health Minister Rajini demanded changes to the two National Medical Commission (NMC) provisions.

An official statement reportedly stated that Mansukh gave Raijin’s appeal a positive response and assured him that appropriate consideration would be given, according to a PTI report.

There are a lot of new ordinances from the NMC. In her delegation to the central government, Rajini stated that the new regulations only permit 100 seats for every ten lakh people in each state.

She expressed concern about these two provisions and mentioned that the other NMC rule states that a hospital with 605 beds should be allocated for new medical colleges.

“These two provisions would cause injustice to Andhra Pradesh, the recently established state,” declared Rajini. In terms of health care services, Andhra Pradesh suffered greatly following the state’s split. She disclosed during the meeting that the Andhra Pradesh government is investing Rs 8,480 crore to build 17 new medical colleges. Five medical colleges that were built are already operational and set to open the following year.

                  She added that the remaining 12 colleges are working quickly on their projects and that the state will not be able to approve the establishment of even one medical college because of the new regulations. Rajini asked the Center to move forward in order to ensure that Andhra Pradesh continues to receive cutting-edge medical care.

  The NMC placed a limit on the total number of MBBS seats in a particular State or UT with its recently released ” Guidelines for Under Graduate Courses under Creation of New Medical Institutions, Launching of New Medical Programs, Increasing Enrollment in Current Programs, and Rating and Assessment Rules, 2023.”

 The Apex Medical Commission announced these guidelines and recommended a ratio of 100 seats for MBBS for every 10 lakh people. The guidelines for the academic year 2023–2024 stated that “Letters of permission (LOP) for starting new medical colleges shall be issued only for annual intake capacity of 50/100/150 seats; As long as the medical college adheres to the ratio of 100 MBBS seats for every 10 lakh residents in that state or U.T.

     Medical Dialogues had previously reported that a number of southern states, including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, and Telangana, were no longer eligible to apply for any additional seats or new medical colleges due to this new rule.

Andhra Pradesh is expected to have 5.34 crore people living there in 2021, and according to information released earlier this year by the Ministry of Health’s Dr. Pawar, the state has 5635 seats. Of these, 13 government medical colleges have 2485 MBBS seats available, and 19 private medical colleges have 3150 more MBBS seats.

                  As a result, Andhra Pradesh should have 5346 medical seats, surpassing the threshold established by the Apex Medical Commission, when considering the NMC MBBS seats per population ratio.