32 new medical college disqualifications may jeopardize careers of 4000 students

New Delhi: There is a possibility of nearly 32 new private colleges finding their institutes disqualified for failing to qualify the standard requirements of the Medical Council of India (MCI).The disqualification will lead to jeopardizing the career prospects of 4000 students approximately.

These 32 colleges were approved by the Supreme Court appointed Oversight Committee in May 2016. However, the apex medical Council has disqualified the institutions, due to their inability to meet the required standards reports HT.

A government source has however, revealed that the Health Ministry is looking into the medical regulators latest report, and has already spoken to heads of the institutions, that have failed the inspection test. There is a possibility of the Health Ministry calling for another inspection of colleges with minor drawbacks.

The RM Lodha headed Committee had earlier, overruled the Medical Council of India’s (MCI) decision of disqualification, on the condition, that if these colleges failed the inspection another time, they will not be allowed to admit students for two years.

Following this, these colleges admitted 3,957 NEET qualified students in the summer. Rules state that these students will have to be shifted to other colleges, if the institutions they are admitted to, fail to qualify the MCI inspection. Experts have highlighted that the shift would indeed be a challenging proposition.

Problems accrued for these NEET qualified students, when the second round of the MCI inspection in November, saw just two colleges qualify the regulator’s benchmark. These colleges were Maheshwara Medical College in Andhra Pradesh’s Chitkul, and Amaltas Institute of Medical Sciences at Dewas in Madhya Pradesh .

The colleges disqualified suffer from faculty and resident doctor shortages, locked intensive care units (ICU) and emergency wards, and vacant general wards. Worse still some colleges have also been found having submitted forged documents, to present proof of requisite number of faculty, or having lined up fake patients in wards, for MCI approval.

An investigative survey carried out by the HT team also discovered similar deficiencies like no faculty, locked operation theatres, Empty ICUs, and under-construction departments and buildings, awaiting joining students at oversight committee approved institutes .

Sudhir Giri, Chairman ,Venkateswara University that has failed to qualify the MCI  regulations, said: “The MCI is biased and adamant on barring us for vested reasons.”