From Sanjiv Dube
NEW DELHI :
The new six-member governing council of the Medical Council of India
(MCI) has decided to review and reassess all permissions granted to 79
medical colleges by the sacked Ketan Mehta regime.
Headed by Dr S K Sarin the new MCI governing body includes Prof Ranjit Roy
Chowdhary, Dr Sita Naik, Dr Gautam Sen, Dr Devi Shetty and Dr R L Salhan.
The new governing body has been authorized by the health ministry to
both inspect and grant recognition to medical colleges for the next one
year under Section 10A of the MCI Act 1956.
All approvals, whether recognition of institutions, starting of new
courses or increase in intake allowed by the Ketan Mehta regime will be
taken up again and thoroughly screened and reassessed, according to a
decision taken on June 8.
The inspection and assessment will be carried out by a special team of
43 assessors, chosen from seven top Central government medical
institutes. The permanent inspectors who used to do the job under the
old regime have resigned.
The governing body has finalized guidelines for the assessors to carry out
inspections of colleges. A baseline datasheet has also been sent to all
medical colleges which will have to be filled by the colleges and sent
to the governing body.
Speaking to reporters Dr Sarin said, “We will finish our task of
assessing, approving or disapproving of new colleges and renewal of
permission for colleges already approved for undergraduate courses well
before the July 15 deadline. The same time will also be needed to go
through all applications for the 14,897 postgraduate seats."
Describing the modus operandi of the selection of assessors he said
: “The 43 assessors were randomly chosen and, through computer generated
random numbering assigned the duty of inspecting colleges. They will
submit their assessment reports by June 16. We will then evaluate
individual files before reaching our decision.”
Earlier, health secretary K Sujatha Rao said, “This committee is not in
an advisory role but will actively look to run MCI, including issuing
licences and permissions, conducting inspections and regulating medical
education, for a maximum of one year.”
MCI
dissolved, 7-member team to run apex body
NEW DELHI :
On May 15, a Sunday, President Pratibha Patil promulgated an
ordinance to dissolve the medical education apex body, the Medical
Council of India (MCI), replacing it with a seven-member panel of
eminent doctors led by gastroenterologist S K Sarin.
The panel will be in charge till the next one year, Health Secretary
Sujatha Rao said. The other members of the panel are: Dr. Devi Shetty of
Narayana Hrudayalaya in Bangalore; Dr. Gautam Sen, former Dean of the
J.J. Hospital Mumbai; Dr. Sita Nayik of Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate
Medical Institute, Lucknow; Dr. Ranjit Roy Chowdhury, clinical
pharmacologist and Emeritus Scientist at the National Institute of
Immunology, and Dr. S.M. Salhan, Dean of Sikkim-Manipal University.
Amending the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956, the government has
inserted Article 3 (a) through the ordinance that authorises the
government to intervene in matters of “national policy.” In case of a
dispute over “national policy,” the view of the government will prevail.
Dr Sarin is currently the Director Professor of Gastroenterology at the
G B Pant Hospital in the capital. He is an AIIMS alumnus and has
been in several other Government panels.
The panel will be in charge till the next one year, Health Secretary
Sujatha Rao said.
The Government has said it would bring in a new law for the formation of
an overarching body to regulate medical education in the country.
Rao had said on May 14 that a draft law for the formation of such a
body would be formulated within a month. She added that the draft law
would be a legislative response to the credibility crisis which the MCI
was in.
The MCI was established in 1934 under the Indian Medical Council Act,
1933, now repealed, with the main function of establishing uniform
standards of higher qualifications in medicine and recognition of
medical institutions in India and abroad.
In 1956, the old Act was repealed and a new one was enacted. This was
further modified in 1964, 1993 and 2001.
Govt
move to give boost to medical education
NEW DELHI : The Health Ministry has drawn up a plan to boost medical
education in the country for which it plans to make major changes in the
rules, according to sources.
Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has approved the proposed overhaul of
medical education, including rationalising land use for setting up
colleges, introducing new courses and increasing postgraduate seats by
30 per cent for specialisations.
Amendments to Medical Colleges Regulations
(1999) will allow medical colleges to be run in high-rises on 10 acres
in metros and grade-A cities.
"Since land-availability is a problem in
[these cities], we've shifted to the concept of total built area
required for essential infrastructure, including the medical college,
hostels, hospitals, libraries, etc," Dr Ketan Desai, president, Medical
Council of India (MCI) said on October 16.
This means Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals,
for example, can open a medical college on its 15-acre campus in Delhi.
"This will boost healthcare facilities in
cities where existing government hospitals can no longer meet
exponential growth in population," said a ministry source.
There are 300 medical colleges in India
that are being run by the government, trusts and societies. These
colleges produce 23,000 doctors each year.
"The amendments were needed as there's an
acute shortage of doctors and we need at least 50,000 medical graduates
each year. The MCI, however, needs to ensure it keeps out fly-by-night
operators who cannot assure quality education and hands-on hospital
experience," said cardiac surgeon Dr Naresh Trehan, chairman, Global
Health, which has set up the 43-acre MediCity in Gurgaon.
Other amendments include increasing the
post-graduate student-professor ratio to 2:1 from the present 1:1. "This
will add 4,000 seats to post-graduate courses," said the ministry
official.
PG medical studies
being sliced off from MCI
GULBARGA : The postgradute medical studies is being
sliced off from the ambit of the Medical Council of
India and would be given to a distinct body, according
to a decision taken by the Central government.
Besides, the government has also decided to create a new
body, National Paramedical Council, to monitor para-medical
studies in the country which had remained neglected so
far.
According to the Additional Director-General of the
Directorate General of Health Services of Union Ministry
of Health and Family Welfare, Dr Sambasivarao a draft
amendment to the Medical Council of India Act is being
prepared in this regard.
Dr R Sambasivarao was speaking at the inauguration of
the XII Annual Conference of the Karnataka Chapter of
the Indian Association of Medical Microbiologists,
organised by the Department of Medical Microbiology of
the M R Medical College here on January 12.
Dr Sambasivarao said although there were 271 medical
colleges in the country there was a dire need for more
medical colleges to cater to growing needs of medical
education. The National Knowledge Commission headed by
Sam Pitroda has also underlined the need for giving a
boost to medical education.
Indian students were still migrating to foreign
countries like China, South Africa, West Indies etc to
pursue their medical education, he added.
He said
there was a dearth of medical professionals apart from
uneven distribution of medical services in the country
and the central government has launched the National
Rural Health Mission (NRHM) at a huge cost of Rs 15,000
crore to address the issue. Only 30 per cent of the
population lived in urban areas but 70 per cent of the
medical professionals have concentrated their services
only in urban areas. Only 30 per cent of medical
professionals have been serving 70 per cent of the
population in rural areas.
The Additional Director General lauded Karnataka for
playing a pioneering role in promoting medical education
and also for large scale privatisation of medical
education opening doors for the large sections to take
up medical careers.
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