Faculty Shortage: NMC serves notice to two GMCs in Maharashtra over non-compliance

Mumbai: Taking cognisance of the shortage of faculty, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has recently issued non-compliance notices to two government medical colleges in Maharashtra.

The two medical colleges who have received notice from the apex medical education regulatory body for not having adequate number of teaching staff include the recently set up government medical college in Osmanabad and a proposed college at Parbhani. NMC issued the notices after conducting an inspection recently at those two medical colleges.

Meanwhile, the doctors belonging to the government hospitals have claimed that this is just the tip of the iceberg and the situation is not getting any better with the government setting up new medical colleges at an alarming date.

In its recent budget last week, the State Government made an announcement for setting up 11 new medical colleges in Maharashtra. Faculty members have informed the Times of India, that in order to fill up the vacant posts at some of the newly constituted medical colleges, the authorities have been issuing unofficial temporary transfer orders to teachers from leading government medical colleges.

Also Read: Faculty crunch at eighteen new AIIMS - Up to 78 percent posts vacant, reveals Health Ministry data

Referring to the situation, a doctor told TOI, "Teachers are being sent to the new colleges until the NMC inspection and then are called back. Shortage of faculty is a serious concern for some time now. And it is only getting worse as new colleges are coming up at an alarming rate...and the teaching staff have not grown proportionately."

Meanwhile, a dean of a government medical college from a remote district of the State claimed that they have already issued advertisement for the vacant posts and they plan to do it again.

He asked, "Why will qualified doctors come to a remote place where there is no facility for their family?"

Informing that they are trying to hire teachers through the divisional selection board, he further added that these teachers hold their posts only for four months.

A State official confirmed that the recruitment process is underway and added, "The medical education department has started the MPSC recruitment drive specially for medical colleges."

Commenting on the matter, parent representative Sudha Shenoy referred to the fact that the MBBS seats have been increased from 3,000 back in 2017 to 4,500 in the last five years.

"When students join new colleges, there are no teachers available. Many are hired on a rotation basis...There is a need to increase the intake capacity for MBBS, but the government also needs to ensure that adequate infra-structure and faculty memb-ers are provided. Many colleges don't even have a building, forget hostels," she added.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that amid the reports that medical institutes such as the newly constituted All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) are reeling under shortage of faculties, the Central Government had informed in the Lok Sabha that it has taken strong action against medical colleges not maintaining proper faculty.

Assuring that action will be taken against similar delinquent institutions, the Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya also told Lok Sabha that state governments are responsible for keeping faculty members in case of government-run medical institutions and in case of private medical colleges, the responsibility lies with the respective management.

Mandaviya had further said that the central government keeps sending inspection teams to medical colleges besides taking undertakings and affidavits from medical colleges for maintaining proper faculty.

Also Read: Strong action will be taken against medical colleges not maintaining proper faculty: Union Health Minister