Soon, private firms to offer medical education

Mumbai: In an attempt to ease the shortage of seats, the Medical Council of India (MCI) has given the green signal for private healthcare firms to set up medical colleges. MCI, the body that regulates the sector and registers doctors, has allowed hospital chains such as Fortis Healthcare, Max Healthcare and Apollo Hospitals to set up medical colleges in the country, according to a report in Financial Express.

Until now, only state-run bodies, universities and private religious or charitable trusts were allowed to establish medical colleges. The MCI has also relaxed the land requirement norms for companies planning to set up medical colleges in large cities. Currently, India has an acute shortage of seats in medical education.

Hundreds of medical graduates go overseas to pursue higher education as current capacity was hardly about 13,500 post-graduate medical seats. Earlier this week, India's cabinet approved a proposal to allow foreign universities to set up local campuses, part of long-standing plan to reform the education sector and prevent students from going abroad to pursue educatio