New Delhi, May 25: In a major relaxation of norms, the Medical Council of India (MCI) has allowed existing medical colleges to open new campuses in underserved states with poor college to population ratio inorder to correct the imbalance.
 With this relaxation of norms applying to existing medical colleges, the MCI has allowed them to set up another campus near an existing hospital in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Rajasthan and parts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, besides the North Eastern states.
 These are the most underserved states insofar as the availability of medical colleges and MBBS and MD seats is concerned and the new norms will help these states produce more doctors and help improve medical healthcare facilities.
 The new relaxed MCI norms seek to correct the imbalance and aid in achieving India's goal of improving the doctor patient ratio from 1:2000 at present to 1:1000 by 2021.
 As per the new norms, the Council has allowed new campuses to be located within a distance of 10 kilometres from any government or private hospital which has been in the existence for the past three years.
 This relaxation was cleared by the MCI Board of Governors earlier and has now received a formal nod from the Health Ministry also.
 "We have decided to allow relaxation to existing medical colleges to open up another campus within 10 kms of the existing hospitals to help set up more medical colleges in infrastructure deficient states," K K Talwar, chairman of the MCI Board of Governors told PTI.
 The new MCI norms seek to correct the imbalance and aid India's goal of improving the doctor patient ratio from 1:2000 at present to 1:1000 by 2021.

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