I welcome this move by the Union Health Ministry, directing the Board of Governors to prepare draft guidelines for the fee structure in private medical colleges and deemed universities across the country. It will eliminate the exorbitant fees being charged by private medical colleges.
Nearly 50 percent of the tottal 76,878 MBBS seats in the country are government-owned and charge nominal fees. Fifty percent of the remaining will be regulated by the National Medical Council. This means almost 75 percent of the total seats in the country will be available at reasonable fees. However, state governments will still have the liberty tod determine the fees for the remaining 25 percent of the management quota seats in private colleges, on the basis of individual MoUs signed with colleges based on mutual agreement.
The good news is that this move will help meritorious students to study medicine at affordable prices.
The introduction of NEET has also benefitted the medical aspirants and eased the pressure they face. So far, t hey had been writing a lot of entrance exams for admissions to medical courses in different institutions, which NEET brought to an end.
According to recent data released by the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry, there are almost one million doctors in India. However, only about eight lakkh are in active practice. The data further highlights that there is only one doctor for every 1,600people which is much below the doctor-to-patient ration of 1: 1000, recommended by the World Health Organization.
With the Indian medical sector so far failing to deliver in terms of quality and quantity of medical professionals, the demand for quality doctors is rapidly increasing.
In recent years, the government of Karnataka has taken a slew of measures to revamp the medical education and research sector in the state. To ease the shortage of doctors in government hospitals in rural areas, the state government took up the recruitment of Middle Level Health Care Providers and BSc Nursing graduates, training them to provide healthcare in these areas.
The GoK also constituted a committee to curb the menace caused by the seat blocking scam in various deemed to be universities and private medical colleges. It has also been mulling an amendment of the Karnataka Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admissions and determination of Fee) Act 2006.
Presently, the act does not restrict the candidates from surrendering the allotted seats after the mop-up round. However, with the new amendments being planned, a major change will be witnessed, wherein candidates will be barred from surrendering medical, dental and other professional course seats after the mop-up round. If the candidates do this, they will be required to pay the entire course fee as a penalty, which will be transferred to the respective colleges.
