NMC Slaps Show-Cause to 100 Medical Colleges, here is the reason

Bengaluru: Attendance shortfall of faculties is still a matter of concern for the medical colleges as the National Medical Commission (NMC) has issued show-cause notices to 100 medical colleges across the country as the faculties in those institutes failed to meet the 75% attendance criteria.

The list of colleges that received the show-cause notice from the Apex Medical Commission also includes a few colleges in Bengaluru. All these medical colleges have been given 15 days to reply to the notice, failing which they will face punitive action, adds TOI.

Faculty shortage has remained an obstacle for several medical colleges across the country. To meet the faculty requirements, several medical colleges take help from guest lecturers, even though it is not permitted under the NMC rules.

Meanwhile, the NMC rules specify that undergraduate and postgraduate medical colleges imparting medical education must ensure that their faculties have 75% attendance of the total working days. 

Last year, the Undergraduate Medical Education Board (UGMEB) of NMC notified the "Guidelines for Under Graduate Courses under Establishment of New Medical Institutions, Starting of New Medical Courses, Increase of Seats for Existing Courses & Assessment and Rating Regulations, 2023", or the UG-MSR-2023 on August 16, 2023 in its official Gazette.

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

Para 3.1 (i) & (ii) of UG-MSR 2023 specifies that all medical colleges shall install an Aadhaar-Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS) to be linked to Command and Control center of NMC and the daily AEBAS of the required staff (faculty, residents and supporting staff), preferably along with face linked recognition, shall be made available to NMC as well as on the Medical College Website in the form of daily attendance dashboard.

Further, these guidelines also specified that it shall be mandatory for medical colleges to have at least 75% of the total working days (excluding vacations) for all faculty and resident doctors.

Again in the PGMSR-2023 document, which was notified by the NMC on 15.01.2024, the Commission made it mandatory for the faculties in the medical colleges to have at least 75% attendance of the total working days. NMC further clarified that the medical college faculties shall work full-time and they shall not engage in private practice during the college hours.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that in the last few months, NMC issued show-cause notices to more than 350 medical colleges after finding a deficiency in attendance and failure to meet required faculty requirements (Minimum Standard Requirements 2020). 

Recently NMC also issued a warning to the medical institutes directing them to strictly follow UG-MSR 2023 and MSMER 2023 and specified that without compliance with these guidelines, their applications will not be considered and they will lose approvals/recognition.

NMC issued these directions 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.

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

As per the latest media report by the Times of India, despite repeated reminders, several colleges failed to comply with such guidelines, and therefore, NMC has issued show-cause to 100 medical colleges across the country. A show-cause notice sent to a Government Medical College read, "your medical college has failed to abide by the provisions contained in Minimum Standard Requirements-2023 (MSR 2023)."

Commenting on the matter, the vice-chancellor of RGUHS, Dr. MK Ramesh told TOI, "We don’t have a list of colleges under RGUHS which have received the notice. Around 100 colleges across India have received it."

Also Read: 75 percent Attendance must for Faculty, Private Practice Banned During College Hours: NMC