Doctors Association Kashmir today demanded that the number of postgraduate seats in different
specialities must be increased as desired by medical council of India (MCI) and that is only way to
improve the doctor-population ratio in our state.
"All the four functional medical colleges in the our state have additional intake capacity for
postgraduates in different specialities and it is due to inertia and callous attitude of institutional heads
that Jammu Kashmir state is failing repeatedly to get these additional seats despite having capacity said
president DAK Dr Suhail Naik ."To increase the availability of specialist doctors in the state, one-time
increase in PG seats is permitted by MCI. But before increasing the said seats the MCI desires
immediate revision of infrastructure and faculty strength. According to a source, Kashmir has the
chance to get 70-seat increase for the upcoming academic session Dr Naik added.
Pertinently it is now second consecutive year, that the MCI had asked the J&K medical colleges to
furnish their infrastructural and faculty details to avail the “one-time increase in seats” in the clinical
postgraduate courses for the academic year 2018-19.
But due to inertia and apathy of institutional heads to submit details of infrastructure and available
faculty strength at J K medical colleges is not only delaying the increase in number of Postgraduate
seats but also marring the carrier of hundreds of aspiring candidates Dr Naik further added.
In a bid to address shortage of specialist doctors, the medical council of India has written to medical
colleges in Jammu and Kashmir and other states to “avail the opportunity” to secure an increase in the
number of postgraduate seats.
It is pertinent to mention here that in last academic session, Kashmir medical colleges were able to get a
go-ahead for 57 postgraduate seats—37 in GMC Srinagar and 20 in SKIMS medical college, although the
expected increase was more.(KNO)