Doctors on 'loan'

Doctors, including the dean, have been loaned from the short-staffed Grant Medical College to ensure new college at GT Hospital gets Medical Council of India recognition

WHILE laying out and implementing its plan of starting new medical colleges, the state medical education department seems to have forgotten an element that some would consider important faculty to educate the students.


Although 35 doctors were relieved from duty at the GMC to join the new medical college at GT hospital, the doctors continue to work at GMC itself

But, the determined department has ensured that something as trivial as the shortage of teachers does not deprive aspiring doctors of an education and a degree.

And, if that means bending the rules, duping the Medical Council of India (MCI) and taking the risk of churning out doctors who may not know what they are doing, well, so be it.

The innovative work-around, which the department has perfected through years of practice, involves 'loaning' teaching doctors from a medical college to one which is slated for an inspection by the MCI.

The inspectors visit the college, are told that the loaned teachers actually teach there and then go back to take a decision on whether they should grant MCI recognition to the new department of the college.

The loaned teachers, meanwhile, go back to teach at their original college until they are asked to go somewhere else again.

Upping the ante

Now, however, the department has taken the game to a whole new level by using the same method to get MCI recognition for a whole new college to start an MBBS course.

An order (copy with MiD DAY) shows that nearly 35 doctors working as lecturers, associate professors and professors at the Grant Medical College (GMC) attached to JJ Hospital were relived from duty to join at the same positions in a proposed medical college attached to GT Hospital, which is awaiting MCI recognition.
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The list includes Dr T P Lahane, GMC's dean, who is supposed to have joined as the dean of the new medical college.

Although they were relieved from duty, the committed doctors continue to work at GMC.

"Whenever an MCI inspection is scheduled at a college, medical teachers from other colleges go there a day prior to the inspection and show that they are physically present in the college.

They go back to their parent college as soon as the inspection is over. This has been going on for a long time because of the scarcity of teaching doctors," said a senior doctor, requesting anonymity.

Senior officials at JJ Hospital, including Lahane himself, claim that only surplus staff has been relieved for the new medical college.
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The MCI, however, derecognised three departments of the hospital in 2009 psychiatry, radiology and forensic medicine due to shortage of doctors. In fact, the psychiatry department has only one professor.

"There is a 40 per cent shortage in staff at JJ Hospital itself. How can the teachers and the dean get relieved from GMC to join the new medical college at GT Hospital?" a senior doctor pointed out.

Lofty plans
If all goes well, the new medical college is scheduled to start taking in students from this academic year itself. And, apart from this, two medical colleges are also slated to commence operations in Nandurbar and Alibaug.

EXPERT SPEAK

Dr Randeep Guleria, MCI inspector and senior doctor at AIIMS, said, "If an institute relieves a set of medical teachers from their college their medical seats will also get derecognised automatically. Relieving doctors from one college so that they can be shown working in another college just for getting the recognition is in violation of MCI rules."
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Dr Sita Naik, member of MCI's governing body, said, "If a college has more teachers than the minimum number required, they can send some of their teaching staff to new medical colleges. Every college should have adequate teaching faculty to earn MCI recognition.

When our assessment team goes for an inspection, they mark the presence of all the medical teachers who are physically present and only then does the college get recognised."

A senior retired doctor, requesting anonymity, said, "Relieving doctors from GMC and showing that they are working at GT Hospital is just an eyewash. According to the rule, the medical education department should create posts, fill it with new staffers and then seek recognition."

RULEBOOK
For 100 admissions in the undergraduate MBBS course, every college requires four departments with 12 faculty members in each one. The college can apply for recognition for running a post-graduate course only after the first batch of MBBS students has graduated

IN THE PAST
Till Dr T P Lahane took over as the dean of JJ hospital, GMC did not have a permanent dean and deans would be brought in on loan from other colleges before every MCI inspection to avoid de-recognition.

The Other Side

Milind Mhaiskar, secretary, Medical Education Department, said, "The proposal of the new medical college is still pending with the cabinet.

We have, in the meantime, sought recognition from the MCI and have sent them the list of medical staff and infrastructure that we have.

We cannot get teachers easily in the initial stages and, thus, we have relived the staff from GMC for the new one. There is no harm in this."

Dr T P Lahane, dean, Grant Medical College, said, "There are two types of staff that we have at our medical colleges.

The first set consists of the minimum number required for MCI recognition and the others are service class. We have relieved only those medical teachers who are working in the service unit so that they can be a part of the new medical college.

Once we get the sanctions for the post, the Maharashtra Public Service Commission will find new people and we will bring the relieved staffers back to GMC. Similarly, doctors have been relieved from 14 other medical colleges as well."

Did you know?
India aims to achieve a doctor-population ratio of 1.5:1000 ufffd the world average ufffd by 2031.
The present ratio is 1:1700.