MCI approval to GMC to fill all 150 MBBS seats

The Medical council of India (MCI) has given its approval to the Goa Medical College (GMC) to go ahead and fill all the 150 first year MBBS seats for the academic session of 2016-17.

In 2012, GMC had increased the number of medicine seats from 100 to 150 so that more number of students in the state can study medicine at this lone medical college here. The GMC dean Dr Pradeep Naik on Tuesday stated that the Union ministry of health and family has communicated with GMC that it can now fill all the 150 seats for the first year for the academic year 2016-17, based on the recommendations of MCI.

Till now the GMC had to take permission annually from the MCI to fill the additional 50 seats. This permission was granted only after an inspection by the MCI team to ensure the availability of the infrastructure and the necessary faculty to meet the requirement of the increased number of students.

Naik further added that,” After the 2017 inspection by the team from MCI, the additional 50 seats at GMC are set to get permanency and no annual permissions will be needed from then on to fill them up.”

The GMC increased the number of seats in 2012 only after a decade. Since it is the only college in the state offering medical courses therefore many medical aspirants had to look for studying opportunities in the neighbouring states of Karnataka and Maharashtra or were forced to opt for dentistry.