Medical College faculty suspended allegedly for Whistleblowing on MBBS recognition

Kottayam: Dr. Jinesh PS, a contract lecturer at the Forensic Medicine Department, Government Medical College(GMC), Kottayam faced music when he decided to mention the issue of the government taking recognition of PG courses with the Medical Council, lightly for the past many years, when the MBBS recognition issue aat the same college came under fire. Dr. Jinesh who has yet to have his PG degree recognized is now under threat of losing his job. It is believed it to be a case of 'whistleblower victimisation'.

When the MBBS recognition at GMC Kottayam was splashed all over the media, the college authorities reportedly asked him to resign or face dismissal. Not wanting to face the wrath, Jinesh put in his papers on October 5, 2017.

Jinesh, however, couldn’t resist speaking about the alleged injustice done to him on his Facebook page.

His facebook outpour on Wednesday had him mention college Principal, Dr Jose Joseph as having told him that his services would be terminated, as he had opened his mouth on the college's MBBS recognition issue, to the TV channel.

“It is startling that a person is stripped of his job for raising a genuine issue, that too when an LDF Government is in power,” Jinesh told the TNIE.

“I didn’t say anything against the government. Being a victim myself, I expressed my concerns to a TV channel when the MBBS course was set to lose the MCI recognition.”

Justifying having gone vocal on the recognition issue, he said, if the recognition issue is not addressed, it will have a severe impact on students and the medical education sector, as a whole.

“When the Forensic Medicine Department at Kottayam, GMC lost recognition in 2013, we raised the issue before the then principal and the Director of Medical Education (DME). They parrotted the same reply given by Dr Jose Joseph that the college has submitted a compliance report and was awaiting MCI’s response,” he added.

However, recognition has yet to come even after the elapse of three years and students being unable to find jobs.

“We are still considered as MBBS doctors, though we spent three years for specialisation. This is not an isolated issue. Departments of General Medicine, General Surgery, Radio-diagnosis, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PMR) in Kottayam GMC and several other courses in other GMCs were being run without MCI recognition for the past four-five years. This prompted me to raise my voice,” he told the New Indian Express.