NMC penalises HIMS Haveri of Rs 15 Lakh over Inadequate Infrastructure

Haveri: The National Medical Commission (NMC) has imposed a penalty of Rs 15 lakh penalty on the Haveri Institute of Medical Sciences (HIMS) for failing to meet the Commission's prescribed standards.

NMC imposed the penalty after identifying several deficiencies and a lack of infrastructure in the institute. However, the Commission had clarified that it would grant permission to HIMS to admit students for the next academic year if the penalty was paid.

Already the institute has paid the Rs 15 lakh penalty. Confirming this, the Dean of HIMS, Dr. Pradeep Kumar MV, admitted to having deposited the penalty amount of Rs 15 lakh.

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Commenting on the matter, he told the Times of India, "The authorities noted Jan and Feb’s biometric attendance for staff, absence of MRI scan facilities, shortage of human cadavers for anatomy dissection, and an inactive histopathology department. The college is preparing to welcome its second batch of students soon and has moved to a new building. We had requested the authorities for exemption from the penalty because HIMS is a new college and infrastructure facilities are being arranged one by one, but they did not accept our appeal."

However, Dr. Kumar assured that from the next year, the institute would make arrangements as per the prescribed standards to avoid a penalty and said, "According to NMC rules, 15 human cadavers are required for anatomy dissection for first-year students, but we have only three cadavers. We will make arrangements as per the prescribed standards for the next year to avoid a penalty."

Meanwhile, a social activist Abdul Hubballi demanded that "Instead of paying a penalty, the HIMS authorities should maintain standards prescribed by the NMC. The dean of HIMS should be aware of all such things beforehand, and quality education should be provided."

Apart from HIMS, NMC imposed a penalty on 27 other medical colleges across the State for their failure to meet the prescribed standards. These medical colleges including HIMS paid the penalty ranging from 2 lakh to Rs 15 lakh.

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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.