Increasing the Number of Medical Colleges Is Detrimental to Healthcare Services

Over the past few years, there has been a race to open new medical colleges across the country. No state government wants to be left behind, and announcements about the opening of new medical colleges frequently make newspaper headlines. Recently, the Madhya Pradesh government also announced plans to open 12 more medical colleges. The story is much the same in other states, where governments are pursuing the expansion of healthcare services through similar initiatives.

As a result, the number of medical colleges in India has increased from 387 in 2014 to 858 in 2026. During the same period, the number of MBBS seats has risen from 51,000 to 140,000, while postgraduate (PG) seats have increased from 31,000 to 86,000. Against this backdrop, a statement by Dr. Anupam Takalkar, Joint Secretary of the Maharashtra chapter of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), deserves attention. He has pointed out that this expansion needs to be halted, as there is a serious risk that it could adversely affect the quality of medical education.

Indeed, this issue calls for reconsideration and in-depth deliberation. In their pursuit of public popularity, politicians are promising what they describe as development. In reality, however, this approach may prove detrimental to healthcare services.

Medical education is fundamentally different from education in other disciplines. For instance, establishing a good technical institute requires land, buildings, hostels, laboratories, equipment and qualified teachers. A medical college requires all these facilities, but it has one additional and indispensable requirement: a large and adequate flow of patients.

Technical education can be imparted in a well-equipped laboratory. Medical education, on the other hand, depends on patients, because students must learn to examine patients, diagnose diseases and provide treatment. In other words, students acquire essential practical experience while participating in patient care under appropriate supervision.

Although the minimum land requirement for opening a medical college has now been removed, substantial land is still needed to establish one. Such large parcels of land are generally unavailable in the middle of cities. Consequently, new medical colleges are often built in remote locations, far from urban centres.

It is well known that patients find it difficult to reach many of these newly established medical colleges. In some places, free auto-rickshaw or bus services have even been arranged to bring patients to the hospitals. Despite these measures, the institutions are unable to attract the required number of patients.

The shortage of teachers is another major problem. During inspection visits by the National Medical Commission (NMC), teachers may be shown as present to satisfy regulatory requirements, but some reportedly appear only for the sake of compliance. The situation has given rise to the problem of ghost faculty—teachers who are shown on the rolls but may not be regularly available to teach.

The same problem affects postgraduate medical education. As a result, doctors are being trained with incomplete clinical knowledge. Nevertheless, after graduating, they are authorised to treat patients despite having received inadequate practical training.

Another important economic aspect of the issue is being overlooked. The money that governments intend to spend on opening new medical colleges could, in many cases, be used to develop and upgrade district hospitals and rural healthcare centres instead.

Ultimately, people need treatment, not impressive buildings. If medical colleges boast beautiful buildings and state-of-the-art infrastructure but fail to produce competent doctors, their existence serves little purpose. It would be far more beneficial for governments to invest in district hospitals and rural healthcare centres.

Unfortunately, India has a longstanding tendency to prioritise paperwork and formal compliance while ignoring realities on the ground. Other healthcare schemes are suffering from similar problems.

In the absence of appropriate guidelines and effective implementation, even the Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme is struggling. The government blames private hospitals, while hospitals are mobilising over payments worth crores of rupees that have remained pending for years.

Rural healthcare centres are in a deplorable condition, lacking both medicines and doctors. District hospitals, too, have hundreds of vacant posts for doctors and other staff, leaving them unable to cope with the growing pressure of patients.

Yet, on paper, the development of healthcare services continues unabated. Announcing the opening of new medical colleges has increasingly become a convenient political slogan.

It appears that the general public is gradually beginning to understand this reality. During counselling for the 2026–27 academic session, approximately 6,000 NEET-UG seats remain vacant. Given the fees running into crores of rupees charged by private medical colleges, along with their reportedly declining credibility, these seats may not all be filled.

Last year, approximately 20,000 postgraduate medical seats remained vacant. Following this, the government abolished the qualifying cut-off. Consequently, thousands of students who had even scored negative marks became eligible for admission to postgraduate courses.

In such circumstances, opening still more medical colleges and producing doctors without adequate competence could rightly be described as playing with the health of the public.

Instead of indiscriminately expanding the number of medical colleges, governments should invest the same resources in developing and upgrading rural healthcare centres and district hospitals. This would ensure that rural patients can receive proper treatment close to their homes, without having to travel long distances in search of medical care.

New infrastructure is justified only when all the necessary arrangements for imparting proper medical education are in place. Without an adequate number of patients and the regular availability of qualified teachers, these new medical colleges risk becoming little more than showpieces.

Doctors who graduate after receiving incomplete education and inadequate clinical training may lack the competence required to diagnose and treat diseases effectively.

Governments must therefore focus on quality rather than quantity. The indiscriminate opening of new medical colleges to secure electoral support may ultimately prove detrimental to healthcare services rather than beneficial.

Dr. Yogendra Shrivastava Jabalpur yogendra.shrivastava@gmail.com