Kolhapur: The Rajarshi Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj Government Medical College (RCSM GMC) in Kolhapur has approved four seats in super-speciality cardiovascular and thoracic surgery and three in cardiology medicine.

With this, RCSM GMC has become the third government hospital in the state where post graduate doctors will be given super specialty training. The other two hospitals are JJ Medical College and Hospital in Mumbai and GMC in Nagpur.

Students will get admission in super-specialty courses from the academic year 2023-24 on the basis of the recently conducted All India Entrance Test for super-specialty courses admission.

“At present, the Medical College has 14 MD (Doctor of Medicine) courses and four MS (Master of Surgery) courses in various faculties. Most of the MD and MS courses will have a capacity of 45 seats. In addition, the Medical College has MBBS courses with an intake capacity of 150 students. Akshay Bafna, Assistant Professor, Department of Cardiology, RCSM GMC Kolhapur, said, “All the seats are filled through All India Entrance Examinations and subsequent centralized admission process.

“A doctor from GB Pant Medical College was assigned the task of inspecting the cardiac department. Currently, we perform 100-150 cardiac procedures, sometimes even rare ones. We have a 25 bed facility ready. All the expertise and logistic requirements are available with us, which has made it easy for the National Medical Commission to approve the seats, Bafna said.

RCSM GMC dean Pradeep Dixit said, “We have a cardiac department functioning for the last 20 years. Now we will have postgraduate courses on cardiac surgery and cardiology medicine. Students are allowed to serve at the attached Chhatrapati Pramila Raje Civil Hospital.” With this, critical cardiac operations such as open-heart surgeries and other procedures that require surgical expertise can be performed. These will be of great help to critical patients from poor backgrounds who cannot afford such surgeries in private hospitals. Can’t afford it.”