Vacant seats at medical colleges cost exchequer ₹200 crore
NEWDELHI: There were no takers for 352 super speciality medical seats in private and government medical colleges after the third round of centralised counselling by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). There were 2,000 seats available for super speciality courses and the vacancies are estimated to have caused a loss of over ₹200 crore.
Of the 352 seats, 180 are vacant in government medical colleges. Cardiovascular and thoracic surgery has the highest vacancy, at 23. Senior doctors say the cost of infrastructure, faculty, equipment, among others, makes super speciality teaching expensive.
They say average expenses for a seat add up to ₹40 lakh to ₹75 lakh for three years depending on the branches. The most expensive is cardiovascular.
NEWDELHI: There were no takers for 352 super speciality medical seats in private and government medical colleges after the third round of centralised counselling by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). There were 2,000 seats available for super speciality courses and the vacancies are estimated to have caused a loss of over ₹200 crore.
Of the 352 seats, 180 are vacant in government medical colleges. Cardiovascular and thoracic surgery has the highest vacancy, at 23. Senior doctors say the cost of infrastructure, faculty, equipment, among others, makes super speciality teaching expensive. They say average expenses for a seat add up to ₹40 lakh to ₹75 lakh for three years depending on the branches. The most expensive is cardiovascular.
“The overall financial loss will be over ₹200 crore to both private colleges and the public exchequer ,” said Prof Dr PS NM ur thy, principal, Dr Pinnamaneni Siddhartha Institute of Medical Sciences, Andhra Pradesh.
He said ,“Government colleges subsidise fee as they cover their expenses from taxpayers’ money. So, vacant seats amount to wasting peoples’ money.”
Dr Kailash Sharma, director (academics ), Tat a Memorial Centre, Mumbai, said that unreasonable admission conditions by various states were one of the main reasons behind the vacancies.
He said ,“Government colleges in states ask students to sign bonds to serve in their hospitals for a minimum of three years and maximum of 10 years. For instance, Tamil Nadu wants a candidate to work in the state for 10 years; only then can he/ she get admission in the state government colleges. It is unfair.”
State governments argue that they provide subsidised medical education and students can pay back by offering their professional service to the state.
DrSharma said thatthe coun- selling process was also disrupted due to litigation. “I think one-last-mop-up-round-should-be held to fill as many seats as possible,” he said.
HT had earlier reported that over a hundred seats fell vacant after the third round of counselling as candidates allegedly blocked them by opting for admission during counselling and not turning up to colleges later for admission.
“Students who blocked seats in government colleges caused great damage to others who de served these seats. Seat blocking forced them to take admission in private colleges, whose fee are 10-15 higher than the government college fees,” said a student.