Medical Officer being Shown as Medical Faculty: Telangana Doctors cry out GHOST faculties

Hyderabad: Allegations of ghost faculty have surfaced against Suryapet Medical College by the Telangana Junior Doctors Association (TJUDA) which has stated that medical officers under the Directorate of Health are being shown as faculty members in a bid to gain Medical Council of India (MCI) nod following the inspections.

According to a recent report by TOI, when the MCI inspections were being done at the medical college recently, the management presented the ghost faculty to gain permission by the MCI to run medical courses for the academic year 2019-20.

Alleging this foul play, President Telangana Junior Doctors Association (TJUDA), Dr PS Vijayender Goud told the TOI, " The management of Suryapet Medical College is showing medical officers under the Directorate of health as faculty members. Although the medical colleges should recruit all faculty members as per the required strength and then go for inspections, a few medical colleges are not doing this. instead of recruiting regular faculty members, colleges are resorting to shortcut ways like showing medical officers of Primary Health Centres (PHCs) as faculty members."

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A Health Department official informed the daily that the Suryapet Medical College was earlier sanctioned with 300 seats. The college earlier sought MCI approval for launching MBBS Courses for the academic year 2019-20.

"The MCI application had been sent to the MCI last year and officials are hoping to get clearance after the inspections. With the addition of 300 seats, the total strength of medical seats in the state is expected to touch 1,400 in total," the official informed TOI.

However, despite the increase in the seats of the medical courses, the presence of ghost faculty lowers the standards of doctors passing out from the medical colleges. In many cases, even fake infrastructure, like medical equipment hired for a day to show to the MCI team to obtain its nod, it was further alleged.

The association further mentioned the earlier inspections at RIMS Adilabad was cleared in a similar manner of showing non-faculty staff as faculty members.

The TJUDA has issued a statement in this regard where it further alleged, "The government has used the same logic to obtain clearance for MCI inspection at RIMS Adilabad. The had shown practising doctors in and around Adilabad as faculty."

"The undergraduate students are not having regular classes at the RIMS as there is a dearth of actual faculty members. Also, patient care is affected and some departments at RIMS are running with a single faculty member. If the MCI clearances come through at Suryapet, it will be a repeat of the situation and lead to further churning out of incompetent doctors," Dr Goud further added.