NMC flags manpower deficiencies at Sundargarh GMC, seeks compliance report
Rourkela: Already facing a shortage of teaching and technical staff, Sundargarh Government Medical College and Hospital (SGMCH) has now been directed by the National Medical Commission (NMC) to address the manpower deficiencies and comply with its requirements.
The NMC issued a notice to the medical college on June 30 and asked the medical college to submit compliance report within 45 days after noting deficiencies related mainly to gaps in human resources.
SGMCH was established to provide secondary and tertiary healthcare to Sundargarh, a tribal-dominated district, and neighbouring areas. The medical college has 100 MBBS seats and a 500-bed hospital. Against 180 sanctioned teaching posts, around 57 are reportedly vacant.
Several teaching departments including microbiology, physiology, ENT, ophthalmology and biochemistry as well as clinical departments like orthopaedics and radiodiagnosis have reportedly no professors.
Despite the NMC’s mandatory stipulations, the departments of emergency medicine and physical medicine and rehabilitation are yet to function fully due to shortage of manpower.
Apart from teaching post, the government has also not posted technical staff at the SGMCH. The departments concerned are instead functioning with a few contractual laboratory technicians, class attendants and office attendants.
The Undergraduate Medical Education Board (UGMEB) of the National Medical Commission (NMC) in its "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," stated, "The objective of these regulations is to prescribe for a medical college and Medical Institution approved for admissions of MBBS students annually, the minimum requirements of accommodation in the college and its associated teaching hospitals, staff(teaching and technical) and equipment in the college departments and hospitals."
Speaking to TNIE, a senior faculty member said, "SGMCH’s 12 clinical and eight non-clinical and paraclinical departments are struggling with manpower shortages. Sanctioned posts of medical officers for the casualty department are yet to be filled. Doctors from other departments are therefore being deployed to run the casualty, affecting their regular work and potentially compromising the quality of healthcare services."
Meanwhile, SGMCH dean and principal Prof Gita Sahu said, "The government is aware of the vacancies and appropriate measures are being taken in this regard. Necessary steps were taken to submit the compliance report to the NMC by the first week of August."
Sundargarh MLA Jogesh Singh said the SGMCH was supposed to provide quality secondary and tertiary healthcare to people in the tribal-dominated region but had unfortunately been reduced to a referral centre due to government neglect.
