The National Medical Commission (NMC) has unveiled comprehensive guidelines in its recent notification, outlining essential conditions for medical colleges venturing into new medical institutions, introducing fresh medical courses, augmenting seat capacities for existing courses, and implementing assessment and rating regulations for 2024.

Titled "Minimum Standard of Requirements for Postgraduate Courses-2023 (PGMSR-2023)," the directive stipulates the following measures:

1. Institutions engaged in both undergraduate and postgraduate teaching must meet the minimum prerequisites for undergraduate training as stipulated by the Undergraduate Medical Education Board (UGMEB) in the UG-MSR document. Additionally, they must address supplemental requirements tailored for postgraduate training.


2. The construction of hospital buildings must align with prevailing national building norms and concede with local statutory regulations for hospitals.


3. Hospitals must maintain an occupancy rate of approximately 80 percent throughout the year for beds catering to patients requiring inpatient care.


4. Departments such as Radio-diagnosis, Anaesthesia, Pathology, Microbiology, and Biochemistry are mandated to augment faculty, infrastructure, and other staff in correspondence with the increase in the number of beds in the hospital. Similar adjustments are necessitated based on the workload within a department.


5. There must be a minimum of 15 percent of the total beds in a department providing postgraduate training should be exclusively designated as Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds or High Dependency Unit (HDU) beds.


6. Each teaching department should possess a dedicated teaching room with ample capacity for engaging students in clinical case discussions and demonstrations.


7. Institutions are obligated to maintain fully operational in-house laboratory and imaging facilities within the purview of the respective departments for the training of postgraduate students.


8. Imaging facilities must align with contemporary standards and leverage the latest available technology for diagnostic purposes and interventions.


9. The maintenance of digital records for investigations conducted across various departments and laboratories is obligatory.


10. A dedicated departmental library stocked with essential books and journals meeting curriculum requirements is a prerequisite.


11. The institution must house a well-equipped, air-conditioned Blood Bank capable of providing component therapy.

The NMC aims to elevate and fortify the quality of postgraduate medical education across the nation by delineating these stringent criteria.