Centre grants 265 DNB PG medical seats to J&K, 50 seats reserved for locals

JAMMU: In sync with Prime Minister’s vision of “Health for All,” the government has granted 265 Diplomate of National Board (DNB) postgraduate medical seats to several government hospitals in Jammu and Kashmir across 20 districts.

The step will not only benefit people of Jammu and Kashmir, but the doctors there there will also get an opportunity of being trained in their own region, a health ministry statement said.

Tapping into this homegrown medical workforce would lead to an effective healthcare delivery system in the Union Territory, it said.

“With the vision of providing trained specialists in almost every district of Jammu and Kashmir, the Government of India took this as a challenge in a mission mode,” read the statement.

“The Ministry of Health along with National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) took a lead role and ensured that several postgraduate seats of NBEMS are granted to various government hospitals of Jammu and Kashmir,” it said.

As a consequence, at present there exist more than 250 PG seats across 20 districts in phase 1 of the expansion plan. Two more PG seats will be granted in the second phase.

Fifty per cent of the PG seats are reserved for local in-service doctors to provide them with the opportunity for postgraduate training.

The people of Jammu and Kashmir will be benefited as modern quality healthcare will become more affordable and accessible in almost all the districts. This in turn, would further enhance the quality of primary, secondary, and tertiary healthcare, the statement said.

The Indian government has also increased the number of examination centres in the UT to ensure that the candidates do not have to travel to other states to appear in the entrance examinations, the statement said.

Earlier,  Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Mansukh L. Mandaviya tweeted, “Heralding a new era of medical education in Jammu & Kashmir! PM @narendramodi Ji’s Govt has granted 265 DNB Post-Graduate medical seats across 20 district Govt hospitals in J&K. I appreciate Team NBE for accomplishing this tremendous work.”

“50% of DNB PG seats are reserved for local in-service doctors. The doctors of J&K are getting an opportunity of being trained in their own region. This was Phase 1 of the expansion of medical education & quality medical care services. In Phase 2, more PG seats will be granted”, read another tweet.