NMC grants Recognition to 2 Assam medical colleges
New Delhi: Bringing good news to the medical aspirants in Assam, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has granted recognition to Assam Medical College and Gauhati Medical College for another 5 years.
Confirming this, the Chief Minister of the State, Himanta Biswa Sarma mentioned in a Tweet, "The National Medical Commission has recognized Assam Medical College and Guwahati Medical College for another 5 years, with 170 and 156 seats respectively in the MBBS course."
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that NMC had de-recognised three medical colleges including Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Assam Medical College and Hospital (AMCH), and Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Medical College (Barpeta Medical).
The colleges were not found to be complying with the set norms and several lapses related to CCTV cameras, Aadhaar-linked biometric attendance procedures, and faculty rolls were found during inspections carried out by the Commission.
The NMC has been repeatedly asking all the medical colleges to implement Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS), to regularly capture the attendance of human resources as specified in the regulations at their premises.
Earlier this year, in a major crackdown over non-compliance to its mandated standards for imparting medical courses, NMC had de-recognised around 40 medical colleges and 100 more were under its scanner.
Also Read: NMC cancels recognition of three medical colleges in Assam
However, both Assam Medical College and Guwahati Medical College appealed against the decision of de-recognition by the UG Medical Education Board of NMC.
While considering the appeal of AMCH, the Appeal Committee, under the Chairmanship of Dr. Suresh Chandra Sharma, NMC Chairman met on 07.06.2023. In the First Appeal Order, NMC referred to the fact that the college rectified the deficiencies and mentioned, "The Principal, AMCH informed the 1st Appeal Committee that the vacancy position in ENT Department was one of the major concern among others and now all the deficiencies pointed out by UGMEB have been rectified. As on date there is no vacancy in faculty posts and all the faculty have been registered on the AEBAS portal. The Principal. AMCH, Dibrugarh informed that all registered users are marking their attendance on AEBAS Further, all Camera are fully functional and onboard on HMIS Portal and linked with NMC Data Centre."
Informing its decision for granting recognition to AMCH for five years, the NMC order further mentioned, "The matter was discussed in detail by the 1st Appeal Committee The Committee observed that apart from AEBAS issues, the other parameters of the Institute are satisfactory and are within the NMC norms. The Committee instructed AMCH, Dibrugarh for ensuring complete implementation of AEBAS for the faculty in future also and to take all necessary steps to ensure that NMC s CCTV cameras are fully functional at all times to collect actual patient foot fall at various locations of the Medical College/ Hospital and availability of daily HMIS data with NMC's data Centre as well as implementation of instructions of NMC from time-to-time with regard to various IT initiatives After taking into account all the facts and the submissions made by the Principal. AMHC. the 1st Appeal Committee unanimously decided to grant Continuation of Recognition of 170 MBBS degree seats to the Medical College for five years The Principal, AMCH, Guwahati accepted the decision of the 1st Appeal Committee."
In the case of Gauhati Medical College and Hospital, UGMEB had de-recognised the college for 156 MBBS seats. During the hearing of the First Appeal, the Principal of GMCH, Guwahati informed the 1st Appeal Committee about the chronology of events and informed that all the deficiencies pointed out by UGMEB have been rectified. There was no vacancy in faculty posts and all the faculty have been registered on the AEBAS portal. Further the principal of the college informed that on the date of hearing out of 475 faculty, 434 registered users marked their attendance on AEBAS including 309 of UG Courses. Further, Cameras were also in place at all the designated locations, the GMCH Principal had informed.
Granting recognition for five years, NMC mentioned in its order, "The matter was discussed in detail by the 1st Appeal Committee. The Committee observed that apart from AEBAS issues, the other parameters of the Institute are satisfactory and are within the NMC normal as there are adequate number of surgeries, clinical load and deficiency of faculty is within permissible range. The Committee directed that being premier institute in North-eastern region, GMCH, Guwahati must set up an example for other Medical Colleges by ensuring complete implementation of Aadhaar Based Biometric Attendance (AEBAS) for the faculty and take steps to ensure that NMC's CCTV cameras are fully functional at all times to collect actual patient foot fall at various locations of the Medical College/ Hospital and availability of daily HMIS data with NMC's data Centre as well as implementation of instructions of NMC from time-to-time with regard to various IT initiatives. After taking into account all the facts and the submissions made by the Principal, GMHC, the 1st Appeal Committee unanimously decided to grant Continuation of Recognition of 156 MBBS degree seats to the Institute for five years. The Principal, GMCH, Guwahati accepted the decision of the 1st Appeal Committee."
