J&K gets approval for 12 more DNB seats, total seats now reach 282

Govind Sharma

JAMMU, May 31: As a step towards strengthening public healthcare scenario in J&K, 12 more seats have been sanctioned by National Board of Examinations in Medical Science (NBEMS) under DNB for the public institutions of J&K. These seats shall be in addition to the earlier granted 270 DNB seats.
While JLNM Hospital Srinagar received approval for 2 seats in Orthopedics, Government Medical College Rajouri received approval for 2 seats in Paediatrics, District Hospital (DH) Poonch got approval for 2 seats in Surgery, DH Reasi 2 seats in General Medicine and Department of Anesthesiology GMC Baramulla given accreditation for starting DNB courses with intake of 4 PGs, 2 primary DNB and 2 Secondary DNB seats per year.
Mission Director, NHM J&K, Ayushi Sudan, while giving details about the development, said that the implementation of the DNB courses at district levels in J&K has been termed as a best practice in the Country.
“Under DNB programme in the UT, a total of 270 seats were granted to the accredited departments during session 2022 and start of 2023 consequent to the concerted efforts and hard work of the Administrative department H&ME J&K, NHM J&K and the team of health institutions being monitored by Bhupinder Kumar, Secretary, Health and Medical Education Department,” she added.
Sudan said that all the efforts are being made to scale up the DNB courses to all the District Hospitals and potential Community Health Centres of J&K. She said during upcoming session, J&K is planning to submit more than 30 applications in all District Hospitals.
The MD NHM said, “Earlier in the month of March, 20 seats were approved in the UT of J&K in which GMC Srinagar received approval of 2 seats in FNB Paediatric Anesthesia. JLNM Hospital, Srinagar received 3 Post MBBS DNB seats in General Surgery, DH Udhampur received a sanction of 5 seats under Pediatrics, General Medicine and Orthopedics. DH Poonch received 2 seats in General Medicine. DH Ganderbal got a sanction of 2 seats each in DNB General Medicine and Diploma Pediatrics. DH Kulgam received 2 seats in Family Medicine and CHC Kupwara got 2 seats in Diploma Pediatrics”.
Pertinent to mention that the DNB (Diplomate of National Board) courses have been introduced in the District Hospitals and new Government Medical Colleges besides old GMCs and SKIMS in order to strengthen the institutions, decongest the GMCs and to address the shortage of specialists in J&K.
Sudan said that the implementation of DNB courses has led to an equitable distribution of health care services and manpower especially in far flung and hard to reach areas and beneficial to the population which have very meager access to health care services in their areas, leading to low referrals from DNB institutions to Tertiary care institutions thereby further decreasing the Out of pocket expenditure (OOPE) of the patients.