EM Was Recognised in India More Than 22 Years Ago
Posted by webmaster on September 01 2010 21:00:31
Emergency Medicine Was Recognised in India More Than 22 Years Ago
01 Sep 2010
Editors Desk 
MD (Accident & Emergency Medicine) was first started in India by Sri Ramachandra Medical College (SRMC) Chennai in early 2000, followed by Vinayaka Missions University Salem. These institutes, which were training postgraduates in EM for many years, are currently awaiting Medical Council of India (MCI) approval for the recognition of their alumni, as well as, permission to continue their training.
The MCI had recently announced the recognition of emergency medicine as the 30th specialty on 21st July 2009 (Read our previous article). After this event, MCI approved MD (Emergency Medicine) is available at B.J.Medical College & NHL Hospital in Gujarat. There are no more than 6 seats here as of today. Other colleges, including AIIMS, are due to begin postgraduate training in EM.
However, the MCI Recommendations on Postgraduate Medical Education 1971 (revised upto 1988), showed that Accidental & Emergency Medicine was a recognised MD degree back then. It is listed as the 24th specialty. Whether it was officially removed or accidently missed in the updates of the Recommendations, is unknown.
It is finally left to speculation on why emergency medicine education has been neglected for more than 22 years in India.
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The 1988 document was forwarded by Dr. Augustine John who is a practicing emergency physician in India.
(EmergencyMedicine.in is not able to authenticate or provide the link to this document as it is not available on the MCI official website www.mciindia.org)
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