Call to improve infra and faculty to address declining demand for medical seats in Andhra Pradesh

The frequent lowering of cut-off marks for admissions into NEET-PG courses in Andhra Pradesh and other States across the country indicates deep-rooted problems in the medical education system, said Kasapu V.V.V. Satyanarayana, a Member of the Department of Policy Research, BJP, Andhra Pradesh, here on Friday (January 16, 2026).

In a statement, Mr. Satyanarayana wondered as to why students would choose to join medical colleges, which do not have adequate infrastructure and teaching faculty. The newly established government medical colleges, district hospitals, and DNB institutions were not having the required medical infrastructure, lack of patients, were giving less stipends to PG students and were located in far flung areas, which was the reason for many of the seats offered by them going vacant.

The reduction of cut-off marks could result in filling up of vacant seats to some extent. But, such a move would result in a decline in the quality of medical education. He expressed concern that it could have an adverse effect on the training of future doctors and on the health of the public.

Mr. Satyanarayana noted that while the PG medical seats in reputed and old medical colleges were seeing stiff competition from students, those in the new colleges have hardly any takers. He felt that the solution lies not in reducing the cut-off marks for admission but in improving the infrastructure, increasing the stipend for PG students, provision of qualified and dedicated faculty and ‘hub and spoke’ model and other long term measures to improve the quality of medical education.