Address faculty shortage within three months: MCI to Jharkhand State government

Jharkhand: MCI has given three months to the Jharkhand state government to address the issue of faculty shortage in Ranchi, Jamshedpur and Dhanbad medical colleges. Otherwise, the state is under threat to lose 160 MBBS seats offered by these institutes.

Shortage of senior residents and professors has been reported in these colleges. They now face the challenge of filling up the posts by September, in an effort to put everything in order for the 2016-17 academic session.

Principal secretary state health department K Vidyasagar was also present in the recent meeting held with MCI officials in the capital.

Vidyasagar said to TOI after reaching Ranchi in the evening, "The MCI was apprised of the progresses in compliances sought by them. It was happy with the overall progress but pointed out few more issues". Vidyasagar gave an undertaking on behalf of the state government saying all the rectifications will be made within specified time.

In 2015, a provisional certificate was granted to Rims Ranchi to offer 60 MBBS seats at the institute. At that point, the state government submitted a compliance undertaking following the allotment for one year tenure. It has promised to address the issue of hiring more faculty members and support staff.

Even PMCH and MGMMC have not been allowed to retain sears, with 50 MBBS seats offered at each institute. It was slashed in 2014. A recent MCI inspection report is different from the ground facts at both the colleges, reported the MD team earlier.

State government did take corrective measures by appointing 24 senior residents and tutors. However, the day the government decided to issue a notification on the appointment of new staff, MCI’s inspection team also paid a surprise visit the same day in the two colleges.

In addition, physical verification of the new appointees could not be confirmed, as they were not present during the surprise check. MCI representatives did not note their attendance, or so to say, did not include them as a part of the department strength.This resulted in a false implication of 25% faculty member’s shortage in PMCH. The same situation led to a reported 12% reported shortage in MGMCH.

Further reports suggest that all is not well with the faculty inside the college. There was a very recent protest by the teachers of these three medical colleges against the non-implementation of dynamic accelerated compulsory promotion (DACP), which will push their salaries up by 40-50%, teachers of three state medical colleges.

At the same time, the age limit has been increased by five years for the posts of senior residents and tutors at RIMS in Ranchi, Patliputra Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) in Dhanbad and Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College (MGMMC) in Jamshedpur.

The final report submitted by MCI highlights the exact percentage of shortage of faculty as follows: PMCH- 25%, Rims-10.75% deficit and MGMMC-18%. Shortage of professors is the major concern of all.