Bihar govt medical colleges come under attack from MCI

The Medical Council of India (MCI) has alleged the Bihar government on not taking adequate action on the deficiencies highlighted by MCI during inspection of its medical colleges. In a clear warning, MCI has stated that it has renewed permission only for the 2015-16 academic sessions in the interest of the students. However, till the problem is now rectified, no permit note will be issued.

MCI has also expressed disappointment over the promised action by the state chief secretary. He (the chief secretary) is reported to have given an undertaking many times earlier that the deficiencies will be removed. Nothing has happened as yet.

At the ground level, MCI has observed shortage of faculty at many prominent state colleges. There are colleges running even at 10-15% faculty shortage. This percentage is higher in the state’s most premier health hub, OMCH which has a reported staff shortage of 22.85%. Then there a more with a severe faculty deficiency rate of 40%.

The problem doesn’t only end with deficiency, but also many doctors complaining that they have not been promoted for years. The state government had made an attempt earlier to tackle the issue of shortage of doctors by increasing the retirement age from 65 to 67 years. However, the doctors feel that only promotion can address this problem of shortage of staff..

MCI’s decision or negative recommendation on state medical colleges will have a direct impact on newly opened Vardhman Institute of Medical Sciences (Pawapuri) and Government Medical College (Bettiah) which have 100 seats each. Besides, The Patna Medical College could end up with reduced seats of up to 100 from 150. More colleges are likely to lose seats.

Criticizing the state government, the MCI in a letter to the state government recently said its teams inspected colleges for the 2015-16 session. Though the chief secretary had given an undertaking the previous year, the inspection teams found the deficiencies were still "gross in nature that could not be brushed aside". "This demonstrates that your state government failed to honour its commitment to remove the deficiencies. However, keeping in mind the interest of the students, the colleges got a nod for the ongoing 2015-16 session," the letter says, as reported by TOI.

The MCI will not accept any undertaking for the session 2016-17. "Failure to comply with the norms shall lead to negative recommendation for which the responsibility shall lie solely on your government," the letter states tersely.

The letter brings it on record that these state-run colleges may end up producing half-baked doctors. "The lack of infrastructure, faculty and other human resources leads to churning out of half-baked doctors, who are clinically not trained to meet the requirement of medical profession, thereby posing risks to human life," it says.