Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH), Bihar’s oldest and the first of the ten fully government medical colleges in the state, has received approval to start medical superspeciality courses in nephrology and neurology in its 99th year of existence, health officials in Patna said on Monday.
“Our neurology and nephrology departments have received permission on August 30 to start superspeciality courses (Dr.NB) with three and two seats per year respectively. These courses will start from next year,” said PMCH principal Dr Vidyapati Chaudhari.
Thus, PMCH became the first fully government medical college in Bihar to receive approval from the National Board of Examinations (NBE) to start Medical Superspeciality Course (DRNB) in any discipline. Currently, it offers three-year superspeciality programmes in the surgical disciplines of neurosurgery and plastic surgery.
“We applied to the National Board of Examinations (NBE) last September for permission to start superspeciality programmes in neurology and nephrology and it was confirmed recently,” Dr Chowdhary said.
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Before 2019, PMCH had tried to start a medical superspeciality course through the National Medical Commission (NMC), which awards a Doctorate of Medicine (DM) degree to successful candidates, but it did not get approval as it did not meet the manpower requirement.
“Last year we did not re-apply for the DM course, mainly because the NMC had put a condition of having at least one professor, one associate professor, one assistant professor and one senior resident doctor in the respective department applying for the DM course. We did not have any structured hierarchy when we applied for permission to start the superspeciality course last year,” said Dr Harsh Vardhan, associate professor, department of nephrology, PMCH.
“On the other hand, five years of experience after DM is required to become a senior consultant to teach students in the superspeciality programme in NBE,” he said.
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“Both Dr Gopal Prasad, professor and head of the nephrology department at PMCH, and I fulfil the criteria for senior consultant. Hence, the NBE has given us two seats annually,” Dr Harsh Vardhan said.
However, the Nephrology department does not have any senior resident till date.
Associate Professors in the Neurology Department of PMCH, Dr. Sanjay Kumar, Dr. Gunjan Kumar and Dr. Munish Kumar have more than five years of post-DM experience. An official, on the condition of anonymity, said that in this way NBE has given them three seats. However, despite experienced teachers, there is no professor in the department.
Dr Harsh Vardhan said, “Unless we start superspeciality courses in our medical colleges, we will not be able to produce qualified doctors to run our superspeciality departments.”
The government has recently been focusing on opening superspeciality departments for in-patient care in six old government medical colleges in Bihar. Union Health Minister JP Nadda is visiting Bihar on September 6 and 7 to review the progress of superspeciality hospitals under construction under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana.
Superspeciality courses available in IGIMS, AIIMS
Patna’s Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS), a state-run autonomous medical college, has 13 superspeciality programmes with an annual intake of 33 students. It has seven surgical specialities (Neurosurgery- 2 seats, Urology- 4, Pediatrics Surgery- 2, Cardio Vascular Surgery- 2, Surgical Gastroenterology- 3, Reproductive Medicine- 2 and Gynecology Oncology- 1 seat) which award the M.Ch degree to the doctors who pass out. The remaining six are medical specialities (Nephrology- 5 seats, Gastroenterology- 2, Cardiology- 3, Clinical Pharmacology- 2, Neurology- 2 and Critical Care Medicine- 3 seats) which award the DM degree, said Prof (Dr) Om Kumar, Professor and Head of Nephrology and Dean (Academics), IGIMS.
All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Patna also offers three-year superspeciality courses in 17 disciplines. Eight of them are surgical specialties (Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery – 6 seats, Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery (CTVS) – 4, Neurosurgery – 2, Paediatric Surgery – 2, Surgical Gastroenterology – 2, Surgical Oncology – 2, Urology – 4 and Trauma Surgery and Critical Care – 2 seats) which award the M.Ch degree to the successful students. The remaining nine are medical specialties (Cardiology – 3 seats, Clinical and Interventional Physiology – 4, Critical Care Medicine – 2, Gastroenterology – 2, Interventional Radiology – 2, Neurology – 2, Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine – 6, Neonatology –
In addition, AIIMS also runs six-year integrated masters and superspeciality courses in four disciplines (CTVS – 4 seats, surgical gastroenterology – 2 seats, pediatric surgery – 3 seats, and trauma surgery and critical care – 6 seats) admitting 15 students per year, Dr Pal said.
