PG medical seat purchased for Rs 1.7cr

Updated on: Monday, August 22, 2011

Recently, a PG Medical seat Radiology in a private medical college in Navi-Mumbai was fetched at Rs1.7 Crore

With the capitation fees showing an alarming increase of 40%, preference of students seemed to have swayed from subjects like Pediatrics and Gynecology to Radiology and Orthopedics.

Medical fraternity of the entire nation is in a state shock looking at the transaction, and also concerned about the quality of doctors emerging from such deals, it also feels helpless in the face of private colleges' autonomy.

Doctors reflecting on the sale of another seat for Rs 1.3 crore, told that medical students want to earn a quick bucks immediately practice with earnings ranging from Rs 1-15 lakh a month, depending on the location of his or her diagnostic centre, equipment and clientele.

Dearth of PG medical seats, with over 10,000 postgraduate aspirants fighting for little over 1,100 government seats across the state. Of these, only 250 seats belong to trendy subjects.

Pravin Shingare of the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) denied knowledge of the seat sale. Nevertheless, he said the demand for private seats had skyrocketed because of a dearth of government seats.

He said subjects like radiology and orthopaedics were the most preferred because "medical practice today is strictly evidence-based as opposed to being clinical-based till a few years ago".

Though radiology is the youngest branch of medicine, it is also the most advanced. Today, several radiologists come together to start their own diagnostic centres to compete with corporate hospitals.

Medical college professors say it is high time the government stopped the sale of seats. A senior professor from JJ Hospital said: "It is scary to think of the means a doctor would adopt to recover the donation amount from society."

PG medical seat purchased for Rs 1.7cr

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