The Union health ministry has issued draft guidelines for centrally sponsored scheme of 'establishment of new medical colleges by upgrading district/referral hospitals' preferably in under-served districts of the country. The government is implementing this scheme to mitigate the shortage of doctors by increasing the number of undergraduate seats in the country for equitable healthcare accessibility across the states.

The scheme aims to establish 58 medical colleges with intake capacity of 100 in each to increase 5,800 seats at the undergraduate level in government sector and to bridge the gap in number of seats available in government and private sector to ensure availability of more MBBS seats for students who cannot afford costly medical education in private sector.

Another major objective of the scheme, with fund sharing between the central government and states in the ratio of 90:10 for NE/special category states and 75:25 for other states, is to utilise the existing infrastructure of district hospitals for increasing undergraduate seats in a cost effective manner by attachment of new medical college with existing district/referral hospitals.

Additional human resource in health generated by the scheme would meet the healthcare needs of the growing population and ensure that doctors are available at PHC/CHC/district level to ensure service guaranteed under NRHM. It will also broad base the medical education in the country by setting up 58 new colleges, preferably in under-served areas.

By opening new government medical colleges by attaching existing district/referral hospitals on one hand and liberalising some MCI norms on the other, a substantial number of MBBS seats can be increased thereby making affordable medical education available in the country and mitigating shortage of doctors with respect to the population and distribution of the human resources across the country.

The shortfall of human resource in health sector has resulted in skewing the distribution of health workers such that vulnerable populations in rural, tribal and hilly areas continue to be extremely underserved. The situation of human resources in health in the country is evolving, but remains inadequate. Trained and competent human resource is the foundation of an effective healthcare delivery system.

The country has largest number of medical colleges in the world (422), with an annual production of over 57,000 doctors and 25,000 specialists. However, India’s average annual output of graduates per medical college is much less as compared to 149 in western Europe, 220 in eastern Europe and 930 in China. Further, the medical colleges in the private sector have increased exponentially where poor population finds it difficult to afford medical education. This also necessitates increase in MBBS seats in government medical colleges.