Mumbai, Sept. 30 -- The Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) on Sunday launched a nationwide survey to collect responses of students and resident doctors on the central government's recent decision to add 5,000 medical seats each in both undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) courses across the country, and the National Medical Council's approval of new colleges. The federation claims that the infrastructure, strength of teaching staff, and the hostels to accommodate students currently available cannot meet the requirements for the increased number of seats. "The government is focused on increasing numbers. But unless facilities are scaled up, the quality of medical education and patient care will only decline," said Dr Akshay Dongardive, FAIMA's national president. FAIMA's survey is being carried out with the objective of gauging whether the colleges are prepared to accommodate the addition of seats, for which responses are being collected from resident doctors and medical students from across the country. The survey is designed to focus on infrastructure and machinery availability, hostel capacity, and faculty strength to cater to the additional seats. "As of Monday afternoon, we have received 1,500 responses," Dongardive said. After three more days, the findings from the responses will be analysed and presented to the officials from the Union Health Ministry, the Directorate of Medical Education and Drugs, and the state government, he added. HT's messages and calls to officials at Directorate of Medical Education & Research (DMER) did not receive a response regarding the issue. The association claims that the seats are going up, but infrastructure has not kept pace. "New PG institutes in medical colleges are being approved, but the state of facilities has not matched the numbers," Dongardive said, adding that Maharashtra is one of the states where the gap is most visible. Dr Swapnil Kendre, general secretary of FAIMA, pointed out that the biggest concern is the imbalance between student intake and resources available, highlighting that the current setup is not sufficient for even the existing number of students and resident doctors, let alone the increased number of seats. A resident doctor from Nashik, requesting anonymity, said, "In our college, there were no hostels. Most of us stayed in another medical college's hostel. Suddenly, the college rented private buildings and we are being asked to pay rent every month. Now, if PG students are added, where will they live? Even existing students have no place." Speaking of the need for proper guidance for aspiring doctors, Kendre pointed to the shortage of PG guides in newer colleges. "Guides are sometimes allotted only on paper. Many colleges do not have senior doctors to supervise. In some cases, professors from major centres are sent temporarily, but this is hardly enough. For PG training, mentorship is crucial; students cannot fulfill criteria like seminars, conferences, and research without it. This directly affects their career progression and even eligibility for exams," he said....