The National Medical Commission (NMC) has deferred by a year its decision to cap the number of MBBS seats to 100 per 10 lakh population following protests by southern states.

The decision was taken after the Union Health Ministry on November 1 asked the medical education regulator to re-examine the provisions of the ratio of 100 MBBS seats per 10 lakh population in states.

"It is informed that a decision has been taken by the Undergraduate Medical Education Board, National Medical Commission that the 'objective' clause under Chapter-1 of 'Guidelines for Under Graduate Courses under Establishment of New Medical Institutions, Starting of New Medical Courses, Increase of Seats for Existing Courses and Assessment and Rating Regulations, 2023" (notified by UGMEB on August 16, 2023) shall be implemented from academic year 2025-26," the Commission said.

The NMC had in August stated that "After 2023-24 (from the 2024-25 academic year), letter of permission for starting of new medical colleges would be issued only for annual intake capacity of 50/100/150 seats (new medical colleges will only have 50-150 seats) provided that medical colleges shall follow the ratio of 100 MBBS seats per 10 lakh population in that state/Union Territory." The August 16 notification was opposed by states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Puducherry, which have a large number of medical colleges.

The limit to the number of seats was introduced to limit the crowding of medical colleges in a state. The move aimed at reducing regional disparities in the availability of healthcare professionals and ensuring effective quality of education.

With this ratio, there would have been a potential for the addition of about 40,000 MBBS seats in the country if the medical colleges were evenly distributed. The prescribed limit of 100 seats per 10 lakh population would have allowed the addition of 40,000 more seats in some states like Bihar and Jharkhand, where there is over 70 per cent deficiency.

The move had received retaliation from states that have already exceeded the seats-to-population ratio.