Supreme Court oversight panel legalises ‘rejected’ medical colleges
A Supreme Court-appointed panel legalised more than 3,000 admissions in 26 medical colleges last year, ignoring its own inspectors who found the institutes lacking in basic facilities, recent official communication show.
The top court set up the panel, called the Oversight Committee (OC), in 2016 to suggest measures to improve medical education in India and review decisions of the regulator, Medical Council of India (MCI). Former chief justice RM Lodha led the three-member OC.
One of the most preferred career choices in India, the standard of medical education has deteriorated over the years, according to a parliamentary panel report last year. It said medical graduates lack competence in performing basic healthcare tasks like normal deliveries. A section of private colleges allegedly hire doctors on rent to pose as full-time faculty members and fill beds with healthy people to pass government inspections.
There are 460 medical colleges in the country, 202 of them government-run.
In a letter to the health ministry on May 14, the OC said 109 new colleges sought permission to admit medical students last year but the MCI approved only 17.
The rest approached the OC, which later allowed 34 colleges to admit students on the condition that they will have to pass a fresh inspection.
A four-member inspection team, jointly formed by the OC and MCI, visited these colleges in November-December last year and found 32 grossly deficient in basic facilities such as faculty, resident doctors, patients and medical equipment.
Only two colleges passed the inspection.
The MCI said the 32 colleges will their Rs 2 crore security deposit each and will be denied permission to admit students for two years.
However, the OC – vested with overriding powers -- reversed the MCI order legalised the admissions of 3099 students for 2016-17. It also asked the ministry to allow these colleges to participate in the admission process for 2017-18.
For the remaining six colleges, the OC asked the government to give them one more opportunity.
“It is strange that the Oversight Committee has disregarded the recommendations of the MCI which are based on inspections conducted by the inspectors of the Oversight Committee itself,” MCI’s president Jayshree Mehta said.
The OC didn’t respond to HT mail. The health ministry declined comment.
Some of the punished colleges alleged that when the inspection team didn’t find any shortcomings in the first inspection, it conducted another within five days.
“Why should we allow (a) second inspection in just five days? The inspection team was biased and adamant to find fault in our colleges,” said a promoter of a private college requesting anonymity.
Mehta, however, said, some colleges get to know about the inspection dates “from local travel agents and nearby hotels”, following which they procure equipment, arrange fictitious patients and teaching faculty through various touts/agents to hoodwink the inspectors.
“That’s why we go for repeated inspections. But the OC trusted colleges’ representation rather than inspection reports,” she added.
Some students HT spoke to admitted that facilities in their colleges are not up to the mark. They, however, but refused to be identified.
The OC term expired on May 15, 2017 but the Supreme Court is likely to ask the ministry to extend itm sources said.
This year, 85 new colleges sought MCI permission but only 10 colleges have passed inspection.
KK Aggarwal, national president, Indian Medical Association, said that the OC has set a wrong precedent.
“If a college’s tall claims of good facilities are the basis of grating permission to run medical education, then why are we wasting time and resources on inspecting colleges?” he said.
