Kerala Medical Teachers Protest Against Mass Transfer Before University Inspection
Mass Transfer
Thiruvananthapuram: Medical teachers belonging to Government Medical Colleges in Kerala are protesting against the mass transfer of medical college faculties to the newly set up Government Medical Colleges of Wayanad and Kasaragod, just before the inspection by the Kerala University of Health Sciences (KUHS).
Terming such a transfer order as "unscientific", the doctors under the Kerala Government Medical College Teachers' Association (KGMCTA) have demanded that the order should be withdrawn by the Government.
The response from the doctors after the Director of Medical Education (DME) transferred altogether 71 faculties from Manjeri, Thrissur, Kozhikode, and Thiruvananthapuram Medical Colleges to the new medical colleges in Wayanad and Kasaragod. In the DME order, the doctors were asked to join the respective institutes the very next day.
Highlighting that this was not the first time that the Government, as a temporary measure, was transferring faculties to meet the shortage, KGMCTA further pointed out that even the faculties who had been transferred only a year ago as part of general transfers have also been transferred this time. As per the association, such repeated transfer order were bound to upset the personal affairs of the doctors.
As per the latest media report by The Hindu, protesting against the mass transfer, KGMCTA pointed out that the transfer order was issued to ensure that the new medical colleges in Wayanad and Kasaragid would meet the faculty requirements set by the National Medical Commission (NMC), at the time of inspection by KUHS.
The doctors argued that instead of creating adequate posts of faculties in the new medical colleges, the State Government was resorting to its usual tactics of transferring faculty from one institute to another to meet the NMC requirements and this was completely unacceptable.
They have pointed out that none of the medical colleges in Kerala had an adequate number of faculties for teaching and patient care. Therefore, the association opined that instead of upsetting patient care in the existing hospitals, the government should create new posts to meet the NMC requirements in the newly set up medical colleges.
KGMCTA has opined that to improve the facilities and academic output of the existing medical colleges, the Government should be looking at long-term and creative measures.
