Medical Colleges Set Up From 2024-25 Session Allowed To Have Max 150 Seats

The distance between college and hospital shall have a maximum 30 minutes travel time. (Representational)

Medical colleges established from 2024-25 academic session onwards shall have a maximum of 150 undergraduate seats, provided the institute follows the ratio of 100 MBBS seats for 10 lakh population in that state.

Colleges seeking increased number of seats cannot exceed 150 MBBS students from 2024-25, the National Medical Commission (NMC) said in its newly-issued "Guidelines for Under Graduate Courses under Establishment of New Medical Institutions, Starting of New Medical Courses, Increase of Seats for Existing Courses and Assessment and Rating Regulations, 2023."

Any additional permitted seat quota for admissions shall be within the number of seats granted for admission to that college, the guidelines notified on August 16 stated.

With the exception that colleges who have applied for academic year 2023-24 for increased seats but failed to get the same, can ask for the same number (totalling 200 or 250) that was in their previous application for one time in the year 2024-25 only.

After 2023-24, letter of permission for starting of new medical colleges shall be issued only for annual intake capacity of 50/100/150 seats, the guidelines stated.

Every hospital seeking permission to start medical college after the publication of this amended regulation shall comprise of the medical college, the attached teaching hospital and the hostels for the students and interns, with or without the residential area for faculty and other staff of college or hospital.

The medical college, hostels for students and interns and the teaching hospital or institution shall be either in a unitary campus or maximum of two campuses, the guidelines said.

According to the guidelines, the distance between the plots of college and hospital shall have a travel time of maximum of 30 minutes. The hospital shall have at least 220 beds.

For every hospital seeking permission to start medical college, the medical college shall have rural health training centres/community health centres/urban health centres affiliated to it; according to the geographical location of the college, which shall be used for internship training.

The guidelines state that every medical institution shall have a skills laboratory where students can practice and Strengthen skills pre-specified in the curriculum. The skills laboratory attempts to recreate the clinical environment and tasks which future healthcare workers have to perform with various levels of complexity and fidelity. Skills lab is only to prepare the student for clinical exposure. It shall not replace or be used for compensating any hands-on clinical training or conducting examination. Six weeks of skills lab training including evaluation before the students are posted to the wards for clinical training shall be mandatory. The skills laboratory shall have a total area of at least 600 sq. m for intake up to 150 MBBS students annually and 800 sq.m for intakes of 200 and 250 MBBS students annually, the guidelines said.

The buildings of the medical college and hospital will have to conform to the prevailing building codes and local building byelaws/norms.

The hospitals should have fire-safety measures, including patient evacuation plans according to local byelaws and regulations. They must also comply with the requirements for providing access and facilities to those who are disabled.

It shall be mandatory to have at least 75 per cent attendance of the total working days (excluding vacations) for all faculty and resident doctors. During vacation period, other than sick leave or leaves availed due to emergency situations, the faculty on duty shall not be availing any leave.

The college or institution shall provide furnished accommodation for at least 75 per cent students, interns, and resident doctors.

It is desirable that hostel rooms are double accommodation facilities. Adequate recreational, dining and 24x7 security facilities shall be provided at the hostels. However, those who do not wish to avail of the hostel facilities shall be allowed to choose their own residential facilities without the college collecting 'hostel fees', the guidelines stated.

The guidelines specified other criteria in terms of campus, library, journals, lecture theatres, laboratories, biomedical waste management, research facility, college website, departments and close circuit camera among others.

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Wassa East health care facilities have no proper medical waste management systems

The district, which has 28 functional health facilities, has only a few mission and private ones with incinerators for proper medical waste disposal. 

Mr Richard Amaning, the lead Consultant for the research who presented at a validation workshop, said the situation was capable of derailing most quality health care indicators and hampering the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.  

The study, he explained, established that most of the facilities either burnt their medical waste behind their facilities or left them uncovered in dug pits posing health emergencies to lives of communities and children in particular who may pick the objects for play.  

According to the study, approximately four in ten facilities have a functional waste collection container available in proximity for non-infectious waste, infectious waste, and sharps waste with some also practicing waste segregation.    

The district also recorded many non-functional toilet facilities, a situation the consultant attributed to building types, frequent water shortage, collapsed toilet facilities or broken doors which did not allow for privacy.  

 Mr Amaning said records keeping on routine cleaning on toilets facilities was also lagging adding that in some facilities one pit latrine served the needs of both staff and patients, staff alone, other areas had collapsed toilets or abandoned due to irregular water supply.   

“In the meantime, basic water services should be increased, considering the huge investment but issues of operational maintenance with frequent breakdowns could derail some aspects of the progress made,” he noted.  

While more than 67 per cent of the 28 facilities and hygiene services were above the national estimate of 55 per cent, the research recorded that such hand washing facilities were either at the mercy of the weather or sinks falling without any care.  

He indicated that environmental cleaning services in Health care facilities were extremely low and many of the facilities had issues with maintaining proper sanitary conditions also majority of the facilities had no personnel or orderlies for cleaning.  

The consultant had therefore proposed the establishment of a District WASH standards for all facilities, development of Health Care Key Performance Indicators with the District Health Directorate, train focal personnel and the introduction of a Clean Clinic Model across the District.  

Ms Seyram Asimah, Acting Programme Manager Water Aid Ghana said the project was designed to strengthen WASH and health systems, accelerate the coverage of reliable access to safer water and affordable, inclusive, and sustainable WASH services.   

That, she noted, would help provide evidence-based information around the sector to inform policy, practice, and advocate prioritization of services in Health care.  

Source: GNA 

Medical Colleges Set Up From 2024-25 Session Onwards to Have Max 150 UG Seats; Check NMC's Guidelines Here