'Every UP district will have at least one medical college by 2027'

Thirteen new government medical colleges in Uttar Pradesh are set to begin their first academic session from 2023, raising the tally of government MBBS seats in the state to 5,128. Alok Kumar, principal secretary, department of medical education, UP, spoke to Careers360 about the expansion, meeting staff requirements, the government's focus on nursing and improving healthcare.

- Sanjay

Q. Uttar Pradesh will start 13 new government medical colleges this year. What is the progress in that plan?

A. Principals have been appointed. The construction is complete and we are recruiting faculties and staff. We have applied to the National Medical Commission (NMC) for permission and NMC inspectors will come between June and July 2023 for assessment to provide permission to run the MBBS courses.

Q. How many undergraduate (UG) medical seats will UP have once these are functional?

A. We had 8,300 MBBS seats in 2022-23. We will have around 1,000 more with the 13 new medical colleges.

MBBS seats will be added by private medical colleges as well. The exact number will be known once the NMC gives the requisite permissions and the seat matrix for admission counselling is ready.

The number of seats may increase as a few private colleges may also start functioning from this year; existing colleges may expand.

Q. Are there more government medical colleges in the pipeline?

A. Uttar Pradesh has 75 districts and we have 65 medical colleges, 35 government and 30 private, in 59 districts. So, there are 16 districts with no medical college and districts like Lucknow which have over six.