New Delhi: As the faculty crunch in medical colleges becomes a major issue of concern, the Medical Council of India (MCI) is now mulling conducting tele-classes for students.

An All India Medical College Tele-Medicine Network is under the consideration of the health ministry, Sita Naik, a member of the MCI's board of governors, said on Tuesday.

"We are seriously considering using distant education through tele-medicine for things like classroom lectures," she said.

"We have a shortage of faculty, so if we can share it through web based programmes, it will solve the problem to some extent," she said.

Looking towards modernizing medical education and training facilities, the MCI is also considering setting up more regional training centres for training medical teachers.

"We are looking ahead for setting up at least five more centres, focusing specially on the regions which lack them," Naik said.

Increasing the number of seats as well as courses at the post-graduate level is another major issue being looked into by the council.

"Presently we have a rocket shape structure - more undergraduate students and lesser post-graduates. We want it to be cylindrical," board of governors' head S.K. Sarin said.

To meet the aim, the council has proposed easing of norms and increasing the number of post graduate seats as well as introducing new post-graduate courses.

"We have already received 1,300 applications from medical colleges for starting the new courses proposed by the council," board member R.N. Salhan said.

The council is also looking ahead to setting up special skill labs across the country to give targeted skill training to the students.

"In most developed countries, learning on live patients is considered unethical. There are dummies available in international market on which the training can be done. We are looking ahead to start skill labs across the country which will train students without using live patients," Naik added.

Meanwhile, the MCI said that the dates for receiving applications for registering new medical colleges has been extended to September 30, from the earlier deadline of August 30. IANS