Kerala: Government Medical College to loose affiliation due to faculty shortage

Kochi: The Government Medical College, Ernakulam which has been short of faculty for years , is now facing an affiliation issue with the Kerala University of Health Sciences (KUHS).The KUHS team which inspected the college on Wednesday, discovered that faculty posts were still vacant despite the college having been given adequate time.

Health Sciences varsity had in the year 2014-15 and 2015-16 decided to cancel affiliation to the college due to faculty shortage. "Considering the fact that the medical college has been in a transition period, we gave conditional approval to it. A few months ago, we had sent a letter to the health secretary instructing him to take immediate measures to fill the vacant posts," said a KUHS official.

"The condition we had given was that the college should fill the vacant posts before our next inspection," he said. "It will take some more time for the team, which conducted the inspection on Wednesday, to give their report to us. So, we cannot comment on it," he said.

"If the report states that the issue of faculty shortage has not yet been addressed, we will send notices to the medical college affiliation," he said. According to hospital sources, the KUHS inspection team has found that the issue of faculty shortage still prevails. "They asked why the government has been unable to fill the posts. They also pointed out that doctors from Alappuzha, Thrissur and Kozhikode medical colleges were ready to join the Ernakulam Medical College," sources said.

Approximately twenty posts had been lying unfilled a few months ago. Ahead of the inspection the government in an attempt to cover had transferred some doctors from other medical colleges to the Ernakulum Medical College. However the transfers could not hide the glaring problem. In previous years this faculty shortage had been as high as 35%.

The lack of cardiologists in the hospital has delayed the start of catherization laboratory.PG Students have also been forced to pursue their courses at Kottayam Medical college due to the same reason. Posts of nurses and paramedical staff have also been lying vacant.

“The urology department also is well-equipped in terms of machines, but it doesn't function in the absence of a urologist. Government should fill all such posts immediately," said Dr Sanil Kumar Member,Justice Krishna Iyer Movement.

KK Shylaja expressing ignorance on faculty shortage told TOI, “"There will not be a situation wherein the medical college will lose its affiliation."