Srinagar, Mar 13: The Medical Council of India (MCI) has approved the conversion of postgraduate diplomas to degrees in department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Government Medical College (GMC) Srinagar, though a plea for increasing the seats in dermatology and ophthalmology has not been considered yet.
A formal announcement in this regard has come from MCI through a notification on March 10, in which 22 seats have been accorded for Obstetrics and Gynecology degree.
Earlier the MCI also permitted an enhancement of six seats for postgraduate degree in the department of Anesthesiology.
As per the notification, the decision has been taken by the MCI’s Board of Directors in lieu of surrendering concerned diploma seats along with the request of the institute received on 12-7-2018.
“The Board of Directors decided to allow conversion of the postgraduate diploma course seats into the corresponding degree seats prospectively i.e. from the academic session 2019-2020,” it said.
The notification reads the decision will be reviewed by the Board of Governors for the purpose of ratification.
“The permission to convert postgraduate diplomas into degree seats is subject to affiliation of additional PG degree seats by the concerned university,” it said.
Principal GMC, Dr. Samia Rashid said the college had also sent recommendations regarding the increase of seats in post-graduate degree in dermatology.
“Dermatology is not an issue for now as we don’t have much infrastructure in this department yet,” he said.
The GMC Srinagar has been raising the demand of converting the diploma courses into degrees for the last many years considering dearth of the specialists particularly in gynecologists, dermatology and anesthesiologists in the valley.
As per the GMC officials, the counselling for these post-graduate degrees shall begin this month for the upcoming session.
“Earlier, only 12 seats were allowed, which in a new corrigendum has been extended to 22 seats in Obstetrics and Gynecology and Anesthesia department. We had only these two departments earlier where diploma courses were taught,” said spokesperson GMC Srinagar, Dr Saleem Khan.
He said the diplomas of the previous batches will stand valid.