Violation of NMC norms: Telangana Medical Colleges Appoint Non-Medical Teachers as MBBS Examiners

Hyderabad: Many government medical colleges in Telangana have reportedly violated the National Medical Commission (NMC) rules by appointing MSc and MSc PhD faculty as internal and external examiners for the MBBS practical examinations.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that as per the Competency-Based Medical Education (CBME) Regulations 2023, which came into effect on August 1, 2023, excluded the non-medical teachers altogether as the examiners for the undergraduate medical examinations.

"Person appointed as an examiner in the particular subject must have at least four years of total teaching experience as Assistant Professor after obtaining postgraduate degree following MBBS, in the subject in a college affiliated to a recognized medical college (by UGMEB of NMC)," the new CBME Regulations stated.

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Following the publication of these regulations, the Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS) also issued the same directions to the colleges in this regard. However, facing a lack of faculties, who fulfill the NMC criteria, across the medical colleges in the State, many MSc faculty have been allotted for the MBBS practical exams, sources informed The New Indian Express.

Commenting on the matter, an assistant professor at the Suryapet Government Medical College told the Daily, "The norms, changed a few years ago, disallow MSc faculty from being examiners. However, the practice continues in government medical colleges."

Referring to the staff shortage, doctors also informed that most of the recruitment in the GMCs was contract-based for a year and the recruitment of regular teaching staff was not done regularly.

Speaking to TNIE in this regard, a doctor from GMC Nalgonda said, "New government medical colleges are coming up in the state without the required infrastructure and teaching faculty. Some colleges have only one or two teaching staff. Meanwhile, the government is reluctant to fill vacancies regularly due to lack of funds. Contractual hiring fails to address understaffed GMCs, as these staff members serve for a year and many are hesitant to join due to limitations on private practice and lack of travel allowances for remote postings." The doctor highlighted the fact that while contractual faculties get Rs 1.25 lakh per month, regular faculty gets only Rs 85,000 for the same designation.

Meanwhile, doctors and professors are arguing in favour of regularisation of contractual hiring, which according to them can solve the issue of faculty shortage at the GMCs and prevent ineligible faculty from being deployed as examiners.

Commenting on the issue, the vice-chairman of Telangana State Medical Council Dr. Gundagani Srinivas said, "We have been demanding the government to make all the faculty positions permanent. We also want them to be paid on par with the doctors at NIMS and AIIMS. Low salary is a major issue behind doctors preferring to join private hospitals. We also want the government to allow the doctors to carry on private practice outside the official working hours of 9 am to 4 pm."

He opined that the latest decision of the Government to appoint 4,356 new teaching faculty in the medical colleges was a temporary fix. Further, Dr. Srinivas opined that the issue of faculty shortage at the medical colleges can only be permanently resolved by making these staff permanent.

The NMC rules of excluding the non-medical teachers as MBBS examiners were severely criticised by the MSc and PhD degree holder faculties in the medical colleges. NMMTA has been protesting against these decisions by the Apex Medical Commission for a long time. Earlier, the association had also called for a co-existence with the medical teachers.

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