NMC slaps show-cause notice on 5 Gujarat Medical Colleges over faculty deficiencies, warns of reducing MBBS seats

According to the Ahmedabad Mirror report, at least five medical colleges and hospitals (MCHs) in Gujarat have received these show-cause notices. Observing severe shortages of medical teachers, tutors, and resident doctors across departments, the Apex Medical Regulator has warned to reduce the MBBS seats in these medical colleges and impose high monetary penalties on these institutes.

The Daily adds that 17 out of 20 departments of GMERS Sola Medical College and Hospital in Ahmedabad have been found deficient by the Commission with respect of the required number of staff.

Also Read: Deficiencies Unaddressed despite show-cause Notices: NMC Warns SKIMS of slashing MBBS seats

In the case of GMERS Gandhinagar, doctors in 18 of 20 departments have less than the required 75% attendance. Ahmedabad Mirror has reported that GMERS Porbandar Medical College and Hospital and GMERS Gotri have also received the show-cause notices.

Meanwhile, the doctors have claimed that the Commission did not take into account several local factors. Gujarat officials said that the basic contention by the doctors is that the NMC has counted biometric attendance for only two months- January and February 2024 for the current evaluation.

Commenting on the matter, a senior official told the Daily, "How can the attendance be counted based on just two months? The doctor may have been present through the year but has taken sanctioned leave in January or February. This may be due to any number of reasons."

Apart from sanctioned leaves, factors like college transfers, court presence, community work, state holidays, examinations, inspections, university work, presence at health department, seminars and conferences, as well as having to go on medical arrangements for VIPs are also some of the factors that are required to be considered for the absence of doctors from their posts, adds the Daily.

Speaking to Mirror, an official in the Gujarat Health Department explained that NMC wants the deans to be more robust in uploading the reasons for absence of medical teachers or of single punches in the biometric system. The Commission is reportedly stressing on this to ensure that leaves can be processed properly at the central level. The official informed that it appears that NMC wants to ensure that the doctors are on duty and not engaged elsewhere or in private practice during duty hours or ghost faculties are not engaged at the institutes.

The Commission has reportedly given these medical colleges and hospitals another two month's time to check their attendance. Therefore, the Deans are now cancelling all leaves sought by the doctors.

Indian Medical Colleges have been reeling under a shortage of adequate faculty for a long time. Last year, in an assessment conducted for the academic year 2022-2023, NMC unveiled a disconcerting reality within a majority of medical colleges. Those institutes were riddled with ghost faculties and senior residents, coupled with none meeting the mandated 50% attendance requirement.

Notably, NMC has persistently urged medical colleges to adopt the Aadhaar-enabled biometric attendance system (AEBAS). This move is aimed at ensuring transparency and authenticity in faculty attendance.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that for the first time, taking note of deficiencies in faculty and clinical material, NMC imposed fines on medical colleges for violating the Maintenance of Standards of Medical Education Regulations, 2023 (MSMER) rules. The Commission slapped a fine of up to Rs 3 lakh on government medical colleges in Tamil Nadu, including the colleges in Dharmapuri, Ramanathapuram, and Nagapattinam. Apart from these colleges, the Commission reportedly has also issued show-cause notices to many other colleges for deficiencies in Aadhaar-based biometric attendance.

Also Read: First time: NMC slaps fine on 3 TN medical colleges for Faculty, Clinical Material Deficiencies

With all this, Medical Colleges have come under extremely tight scrutiny of the National Medical Commission (NMC), as the Apex Medical Regulator has stressed on meeting the faculty as well as infrastructure requirements.

Earlier, medical colleges were facing physical inspections, where a team of assessors would go and visit medical colleges and assess those facilities. This process was widely criticized and accused of being full of bribery and corruption. It was alleged that the assessor would take bribes and approve medical colleges.

However, under the new system, the Apex Medical Regulator is slowly moving online in terms of inspection of medical colleges as well as overseeing the fulfilment of requirements. Although online, with features, like AEBAS and biometric attendance system, it is being difficult for medical colleges to engage ghost faculties.

Speaking to Medical Dialogues, Dr. Aruna Vanikar, the President of NMC UG Medical Education Board (UGMEB) recently informed that NMC has been in talks with the medical colleges across the country on a daily basis to ensure that the medical colleges have been complying with the requirements regarding faculty numbers, biometric attendance, clinical materials and other rules. The process is ongoing and NMC has already reached out to the administrators of around half of the medical colleges.