Inadequate Faculty, Infrastructure: NMC Slaps Rs 12 Lakh Penalty on Medinirai Medical College Hospital
Daltonganj: Taking note of the inadequate number of teaching faculty and infrastructure, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has imposed a Rs 12 lakh penalty on Medinirai Medical College (MMC), Daltonganj.
Directing the institute to deposit the penalty by June 02, 2024, the Commission has further informed that it will reassess the condition of the institute after two months, TOI has reported.
However, the Commission has given its permission to the institute to admit MBBS students in 100 seats for the academic session 2024-2025, the principal of the medical college Dr. Kamender Prasad informed.
Meanwhile, the college administration can file an appeal within 60 days against the Apex Medical Regulator's decision.
Commenting on the matter, the MMC Principal Dr. Prasad told the Times of India, "The director of NMC’s undergraduate (MMC) medical education board, Shambhu Sharan Kumar, has directing us to deposit the penalty by June 2. We have informed the state department of health education and family welfare about this."
The Medinirai Medical College Hospital (MMCH), Daltonganj recently came under the NMC scanner as the licence of its blood bank had expired on September 30, 2020. Directing the institute to renew the licence by July 10, the Apex Medical Regulator had warned to slap a Rs 6 Lakh penalty on the institute for non-compliance.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that the NMC had 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.
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.
Also Read: Medical Colleges Under Tight Scrutiny of National Medical Commission
NMC introduced the provisions of monetary penalty in the Maintenance of Standards of Medical Education Regulations, 2023 or MSMER 2023. The Commission had mentioned that it may impose several forms of penalty such as issue warning to the medical college to rectify or comply, impose monetary penalty up to Rs 1 crore, impose penalty up to Rs 5 lakhs to the faculties of the medical college for misconduct. It may also withhold the accreditation process, recommend to the Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB) of NMC to withhold the application process for any new course including increase of seats in the existing course, reduce the number of students in the next or subsequent academic years, stop admission to one or more courses, recommend for withdrawal of permission, withhold or withdraw accreditation for up to five academic years.
Recently, 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 also issued show-cause notices to many other colleges for deficiencies in Aadhaar-based biometric attendance.
Later, noticing a critical faculty shortage and lack of essential resources, the Commission took strict action against the government medical colleges in Chhattiagarh. NMC slapped a penalty of Rs 1 crore on Kanker Medical College, Rs 4 lakh fine on Durg Medical College, and Rs 3 lakh fine each in the medical colleges located at Bilaspur, Ambikapur, Mahasamund, and Jagdalpur. Along with this, Mahasamund, Kanker, and Raigarh medical colleges have also been served with show-cause notices over the shortage of faculty.
