Row intensifies: CPS Mumbai served 5th notice by Maha Medical Education Dept

Mumbai: As a result of the Bombay High Court declining to intervene in the show cause notices, the State Medical Education Department (MED) of Maharashtra has yet again served a fifth show cause notice to the College of Physicians and Surgeons (CPS) seeking an explanation regarding the deficiencies found in its institutions during an inspection last year.

Despite several show-cause notices and repeated warnings, CPS failed to provide an explanation regarding the deficiencies which prompted the MED to further issue another notice on Tuesday seeking their presence in the next hearing session on May 16.

This comes after the Bombay High Court bench declined to interfere with the show cause notice issued to the institute by the Secretary of Maharashtra Medical Education Department, Ashwini Joshi. Apart from this, the HC bench also asked CPS to set up proper infrastructure and ensure the availability of faculty members, as per the state government norms, in order to admit students for postgraduate medical courses.

Earlier, the Bombay High Court directed the State to provide all documents to CPS so that it can answer the show-cause notice issued by the Medical Education Department of the State. However, later the court decided to lay back and not interfere into the matter.

Medical Dialogues team had recently reported that the Post Graduate Medical Education Board (PGMEB) of the National Medical Commission (NMC) has recommended to the Union Health Ministry for de-recognition of the courses.

Writing to the Under Secretary of the Union Health Ministry, NMC PG medical education board recommended that the popular DPB- Diploma in Pathology and Bacteriology, DCH - Diploma in Child Health and DGO- Diploma Gynecology and Obstetrics courses run by CPS to be withdrawn from the next academic year.

This recommendation has been given by the NMC Board after discussing the issue meeting held on 12.04.2023.

NMC PG Board has expressed its disagreement with the Ministry for providing equivalence to the CPS courses and pointed out that such courses do not come under the purview of NMC.

Established back in 1912, CPS Mumbai is an autonomous body that imparts Postgraduate medical education and offers fellowship, diploma and certificate courses for medical professionals. For the Diploma courses, the tenure is of two years and in the case of Fellowship, the tenure is three years. After obtaining the qualification granted by CPS Mumbai, the practitioners become allowed to register themselves as specialists in the concerned speciality.

Also read- CPS Admissions Row: Medical Education Dept Serves Another Notice To CPS Seeking Explanation

The controversy regarding CPS admissions in Maharashtra commenced after referring to significant gaps in the standards of institutes offering College of Physicians and Surgeons (CPS) affiliated courses, the medical education department of Maharashtra recently wrote to the Union Health Ministry asking for its opinion on whether counselling can be conducted for around 1,100 CPS seats.

Medical Dialogues team had earlier reported that the department referred to the inspection of the Maharashtra Medical Council conducted last year and how during the inspection, MMC had found "severe deficiencies" in several institutes.

According to the data, two institutions offering courses of specialisation by the CPS were found closed while anomalies were detected in 45 institutions. Another 73 institutions refused inspection.

The fifth notice issued on May 9 said that the hearings could not be held since the CPS had approached the Bombay High Court following the fourth notice. It approached the Bombay HC bench and filed a plea in this regard seeking to restart the admission process.

A warning has been given to CPS regarding its failure to provide a satisfactory explanation for the deficiencies and not attending the last hearings. Commenting on this, Medical education secretary Ashwini Joshi said "If the CPS fails to appear for the hearing, it will be considered that they have nothing to say and action will be taken accordingly."

In response, Dr Girish Maindarkar, CPS president, told HT, “Our team will meet the medical education secretary and comply with whatever the government says.’’

Meanwhile, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari extended his support to the CPS Affiliated Institutes and sought the intervention of the State Chief Secretary pointing out that in case of any further delays in the admission process of 2022, the association has expressed fear that the State could lose altogether 1,100 CPS seats.

However, the State Medical Education Department did not change its decision and sent a show-cause notice to the CPS management and demanded an explanation regarding the deficiencies found in its affiliated institutes by March 21.