The Medical Council of India (MCI) has sanctioned an increase in seats in two speciality courses of the Coimbatore Medical College.
The move comes as a positive development for the college, which had recently faced some flak from the regulatory body over a proposal to increase the number of MBBS seats.
While the college had sought approval to add 100 more seats to the existing 150, which will take the total MBBS seats to 250, the MCI assessors had deemed the infrastructure in the institution inadequate and turned down the proposal.
Following this, the State Government allotted Rs.120 crore to the CMC to rectify the shortcomings identified by MCI.
The Postgraduate Medical Education Committee of the MCI met in New Delhi recently and approved the CMC proposal to increase seats in M.S. (General Surgery) from 12 to 16. It gave its sanction to the Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. Medical University, the apex medical institute for the State to which the CMC was affiliated.
The committee considered the Compliance Verification Assessment Report and the Council Assessor’s Report after which it decided to recommend to the Central Government to increase the seats.
It further decided that the recognition granted would be valid for five years after which the college would have to apply for renewal of recognition. Failure to seek renewal of recognition would result in stoppage of admission to the postgraduate course.
Further, the Postgraduate Medical Education Committee also gave its approval to the Coimbatore Medical College to increase the intake in M.D. (Paediatrics) from one to three.
The recognition for this course too would be valid for a period of five years. Hospital officials said that the increase in strength would take effect from the coming academic year of 2015-16.
