NMC notice to Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Medical College over Inadequate faculty Attendance

Ahmedabad: Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Medical College in Rajkot has now received a show-cause notice from the National Medical Commission (NMC) over teachers' attendance issues.

The Commission issued the show cause notice to the medical college as the institute failed to meet the minimum standard requirement of teachers' attendance in 2023.

Even though NMC has made it mandatory for medical colleges to implement the Aadhaar-enabled biometric attendance system (AEBAS) to ensure adequate teaching staff, the college failed to fulfill the requirements set for 2023 and also the directions issued by the Commission.

Also Read: Weeding out Ghost faculties: NMC stresses on Aadhaar-enabled biometric attendance system for faculties in medical colleges

Therefore, issuing a show-cause notice to the medical college, NMC mentioned, "All the medical colleges were informed about the guidelines regarding implementation of AEBAS in the form of a circular. However, your medical college failed to abide by the provisions containing minimum standard requirements set for 2023 as well as the directions laid by the NMC," reports the Times of India.

The college administration has been given 15 days to respond to the NMC notice. As per the rules, all senior teachers and faculties in a medical college must have at least 75% attendance.

Last year in December, NMC released a list of medical colleges that applied for the increase of seats/renewal of permissions/recognition of degree/continuation of Recognition for MBBS. In this respect NMC observed and scrutinized the attendance of the faculties in these institutes as per the provisions contained in MSR 2020 to help these colleges cope with the actual requirement as per Regulation/Guidelines.

As per the document released by NMC monitoring the attendance under AEBAS, the Status of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Medical College, Rajkot for 200 seats from the period 19.06.2023 to 19.09.2023 reflected the required number of Professors, Associate Profs, Assistant Profs, Tutor/Demo, Senior Residents etc. in respect of all the departments- Anatomy, Anesthesiology, Biochemistry, Community Medicine Dentistry, Dermatology, Forens. Med. & Toxico, General Medicine, General Surgery, Microbiology, Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Ophthalmology, Orthopaedics, Oto-Rhinolaryngology, Pediatrics, Pathology, Pharmacology, Physiology, Psychiatry, Radio-Diagnosis.

Among these 20 Departments, there is a requirement for 20 Professors, 48 Associate Professors, 68 Assistant Professors, 39 Tutors/Demos and 40 Senior Residents. However, as per the data, the actual number of Professors in the college is 10 and there are 38 Associate Professors, 47 Assistant Professors, 24 Tutor/Demos, and 5 Senior Residents.

• Even though one professor each is required in all these departments, such a requirement is not met in respect of Anesthesiology, Biochemistry, Community Medicine, Dentistry, Dermatology, General Surgery, Microbiology, Oto-Rhinolaryngology, Pathology, Physiology, Radio-Diagnosis departments. However, in Pharmacology department, the actual number of professors is two. 
• In case of Anatomy Department, the required number of Associate Prof is 2 and the actual number is 1, required number of Assistant Prof is 4 whereas the actual number is also 4, the required number of Tutor/Demo is 5, but the actual number is 0.
• A total number of 4 Assoc. Profs are required in the Anesthesiology department, whereas the actual number is 3. Even though 5 Asst Profs are required in the department, the actual number is 6. Besides, 2 Tutor/Demo and 1 SR are available in the department, whereas there is no requirement for the first and 4 SRs are required in the Department.
• In the case of Biochemistry, 2 actual Asst Prof are there whereas the requirement is for 3. Further, as opposed to the required number of 4 Tutor/Demo, there are only 3 available.
• The data reveals that in the Community Medicine Department, the required number of Assoc Prof, Asst Prof, Tutor/Demo are 3, 5 and 6 respectively. However, the actual number of these faculties are 1, 3 and 2 respectively.
• In the case of Dentistry, the requirement is for 1 Asst prof and 0 Tutor/Demo and 1 SR. However, the actual number is 0, 1 and 0 respectively. In Dermatology, 1 Associate Prof is required but the actual number is 0, revealed the data.
• According to the data, in Forensic Medicine and Toxico. 1 Assc Prof is required, but the actual number is 3, 1 Asst Prof is required but the actual number is 3, 4 Tutor/Demos are required, but the actual number is 0. The General Medicine Department of the medical college requires 6 Assc Prof, 7 Asst Prof, 0 Tutor/Demos, and 7 SRs. However, the actual number of faculties are 4 Assc Profs, 4 Asst profs, 0 Tutor/Demos and 0 SRs.
• Further, the data revealed that the General Surgery department of the medical college requires 6 Assc Profs, 7 Asst Profs, 0 Tutor/Demos and 7 SRs. However, the actual number reflects 3 Assc Profs, 1 Asst. Profs, 0 Tutor/Demos, and 0 SRs.
• In respect of Microbiology Department, the required number of Assc Pros, Asst profs, Tutor/Demo and SR is 2, 3, 4 and 0 respectively. On the other hand, the data reveals that there are 3 actual Assc Profs, 2 Asst Profs, 3 Tutor/Demos, and 1 SR.
• As per the data, the required number of Assoc Prof is 3 in the Ob-Gyn department, whereas the actual number is 2, the required number of Asst Prof is 4, whereas the actual number is 1, the required number of SR is 4, where the actual number is 0.
• The Ophthalmology department meets all the requirements except for the number of SRs. Even though the department needs 2 SR, the actual number is 0. In case of Orthopaedics department, the required number of Assoc Prof, Asst Prof, Tutor/Demo and SR is 3, 4, 0 and 4 respectively. However, the actual number of Assoc Prof is 1, Asst Prof is 1, Tutor/Demo is 0 and SR is also 0.
• In the Oto-Rhinolaryngology department, the required number of Assoc Prof, Asst Prof, Tutor/Demo, and SR is 1, 2, 0 and 2 respectively. However, the actual number of Assoc is 2, Asst Prof is 0, Tutor/Demo is 0 and SR is also 0.
• The data reveals that the required number Assoc Prof in the Pediatrics department is 3, the Asst prof is 4, Tutor/Demo is 0 and SR is 4. However, on the other hand, as per the actual data, there are 0 Assoc Prof, 3 Asst Prof, 0 Tutor/Demo and 1 SR.
• In the Pathology Department of the medical college, the required number of Assoc Prof is 3, whereas the actual number is 5, the required number of Asst Prof is 4, whereas the actual number is 6, the required number of Tutor/Demo is 6, whereas the actual number is 6, the required number of SR is 0, whereas the actual number is 1.
• According to the data, in respect of the Pharmacology Department, the required number of Assoc Prof is 1, Asst Prof is 4, Tutor/Demo is 6 and SR is 0. However, the actual number reveals that there are 0 Assoc Profs, 4 Asst profs, 4 Tutor/Demos, and 0 SR.
• In the Physiology Department of the medical college, there is a requirement of 2 Assoc Profs, 4 Asst profs, 4 Tutor/Demos and 0 SR. However, the actual number reveals that there are 2 Assoc Profs, 3 Asst Prosm 0 Tutor/Demos and 0 SR.
• The Psychiatry department fulfills the requirement in all the respects except for the number of SRs. Although the required number of SR in the department is 1, the actual number is only 0.
• Meanwhile, the Radio-Diagnosis Department of the medical college requires 1 Assoc Profs, 2 Asst profs, 0 Tutor-Demos, and 3 SRs. However, actual number reveals that the college has 3 Assoc Profs, 0 Asst Pros, 2 Tutor/Demos, and 0 SRs.

While releasing the status of 350 institutes, NMC warned all the medical colleges that did not install the AEBAS system that their recognition may be revoked if they failed to fulfill the requirements regarding the installation of AEBAS. Even though time and again the Commission emphasized the mandatory requirement of AEBAS, several medical colleges in the State do not have this system.

Such a move was initiated by the Commission at a time when teachers from one college used to get transferred to other medical colleges to address the lack of sufficient strength just ahead of NMC inspection. However, after the inspection, such teachers used to be transferred back to their respective colleges. Therefore, the Commission made it mandatory for the medical colleges to install the AEBAS system to ensure that the medical colleges across the country have regular attendance of teaching faculties. Further, with the implementation of the AEBAS system, NMC wanted to weed out ghost faculties.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that in December 2023, NMC issued show-cause notices to around 50 percent of medical colleges for not following standards set by them. A total number of 350 out of a total of 654 medical colleges were issued the show cause for violations of the Minimum Standard Requirements 2020 including a deficiency in having the required faculty numbers.

Among these 349 medical colleges, 197 colleges are government-aided and others are private medical institutes. Show cause notice was also issued to a medical college in Kerala's Idukki after finding a deficiency in attendance and failure to meet required faculty requirements (Minimum Standard Requirements 2020)

Following this, NMC issued another warning for the institutions directing them to strictly follow UG-MSR 2023 and MSMER 2023 otherwise their applications will not be considered and they will lose approvals/recognition.

The Apex Medical Commission issued this direction after highlighting the fact that even though 75% attendance of the faculties is a must for approval or renewal, several colleges were found deficient in this regard.

In this respect, NMC also released a list of colleges with deficient faculty attendance and asked all the medical institutes to comply with UGMSR 2023 and MSMER 2023. "...failing which, appropriate action shall be taken against the college/institution," warned the Apex Medical Body.

Also Read: Ensure 75 percent faculty attendance or lose recognition: NMC warns medical colleges