SRINAGAR, JUNE 26: The National Board of Examinations (NBE) has approved 20 more Diplomate of National Board (DNB) seats for Government Medical Colleges and District Hospitals of J&K. A

J&K government handout while confirming the development said the accredited institutions in the UT will now get two PG candidates in the certified stream every year. Till now, 39 Super

Specialty/ Broad Specialty courses have been approved by NBE which are likely to give 81 seats to the UT, which is over and above the DM/MCH and MD/MS courses already being run in the Jammu

& Kashmir. District Hospital, JLNM Srinagar gets accreditation in General Medicine and has been granted 2 seats for DNB by National Board of Examination. With this, the total seats

to new GMC Doda in the department of Pediatrics. With this, GMC Doda is accredited in the specialty of Anesthesia and Pediatrics with a total of four seats in both streams. New GMC Kathua

also has recently been granted two seats in the department of Physiology. With this, GMC Kathua is accredited in the specialty of Pediatrics, Physiology and Community Medicine with a total

of 8 seats. In Kashmir, GMC Anantnag has been granted two seats in the Department of Pharmacology and three seats in the Department of Community Medicine. With this, GMC Anantnag is

accredited in the specialty of Dermatology, Pharmacology and Community Medicine with a total of seven seats. New GMC Rajouri has also been granted one seat in the Department of Orthopedics

and new GMC Baramulla two seats in the Department of Community Medicine. Additionally, among old GMCs/ SKIMS, GMC Srinagar has also been granted accreditation in Endocrinology & Immuno

Hematology and Blood Transfusion departments, and SKIMS Srinagar has been granted accreditation in FNB Interventional Cardiology. Two seats have been approved in each of these accredited

departments. As per the J&K government handout, the DNB 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 Government Medical Colleges and to address the shortage of specialists in the UT of J&K. “Under the dynamic leadership and concerted efforts of

Atal Dulloo, Additional Chief Secretary, H&ME Department and Yasin Choudhary, Mission Director, NHM, J&K, 08 District Hospitals and all GMCs/ SKIMS had applied for DNB courses to

NBE and a total of 129 applications were submitted by the institutions, out of which 26 applications of old GMCs/ SKIMS, 10 applications of new GMCs and 3 applications of DHs have been

approved by National Board of Examinations and a total of 81 seats have been granted to the accredited departments consequent to the concerted efforts and hard work of teams of the

institutions, ” it said. “Moreover, 31 more departments of DHs/ GMCs have been assessed by NBE and their accreditation is awaited, ” added the handout. It said that in order to meet the IPHS

norms of Government of India in DNB Districts, NHM J&K has got additional sanction of Staff Nurses for DNB institutions and currently 42 additional nurses have also been provided to

each District Hospital implementing DNB programme. Besides, additional beds along with the accessories and monitors have been provided to these District Hospitals by National Health Mission,

the government said. It said that Government of India has also approved establishment of eight-bedded Hybrid ICU in each DNB District Hospital. The government said that these measures are

“expected to drastically improve the health care services in the far flung districts and shall improve the services in the tertiary care institutions as well”. “This is also expected to

markedly bring down the referral from the far flung districts to the already overburdened tertiary care institutes of the UT of J&K”.