Tamil Nadu Medical Council has recently written to the Health department to refrain from increasing the number of medical seats in the State.
Its president K. Senthil said here that while the World Health Organisation had prescribed a doctor population ratio of 1:1,000, Tamil Nadu already had got a doctor population ratio of 1:750. “The number of general physicians in the State is comparatively high. Same is the case with specialists, except for five out of the 40 speciality areas, in Tamil Nadu. However, the concern is lack of even distribution of specialists in rural areas, as they are available more in tier one and tier two cities. The government should take steps to ensure availability of specialists in rural areas,” he said.
Recalling that 350 medical seats had been increased in the current academic year admission and the government had plans to increase it further, he said, “In the next 10 to 15 years, there will be no takers for MBBS seats.”
Instead of spending funds on creating infrastructure for the increased number of seats, the government could use them for improving infrastructure in the existing hospitals, he said.
