NMC slaps Rs 1 crore fine on Lakhimpur Medical College Hospital over Severe Mismanagement
Lakhimpur: Taking cognisance of the severe mismanagement at Lakhimpur Medical College and Hospital, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has imposed a hefty fine of Rs 1 crore on the institute.
NMC, the Apex Medical Education Regulatory Body in India announced its decision in a letter directed to the medical college principal. The Commission also warned the institute to take further action if the college failed to settle its pending dues and debts immediately.
In the letter addressed to the LMCH Principal, the Apex Medical Commission cited several critical issues affecting the medical college.
As per the latest media report by Northeast Now, the alarming conditions at the medical college include its lack of electricity during the surgeries, and insufficient staffing in many of its departments. and frequent absences of both the principal and departmental heads from the medical college.
Underscoring the alarming conditions at Lakhimpur Medical College, the Council's letter emphasized the need for immediate corrective measures, Prag News has reported.
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.
The provisions of monetary penalties, as mentioned in the MSMER-2023 Regulations stated, "Monetary penalty not exceeding INR one crore per violation or act of omission by the medical institution."
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.
Earlier this month, 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.
Recently, taking cognisance of 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.
