14 medical colleges showed ghost faculty, got hit

By NAVTAN KUMAR | NEW DELHI | 13 August, 2017





As many as 14 medical colleges have been debarred from admitting students into their MBBS courses in the last two years, after they were found to have presented “ghost” faculty for the inspection of Medical Council of India (MCI), in order to get recognition. These colleges showed the MCI as their teachers those who were not part of their faculty. Over two years, the MCI recommended to the Ministry of Health that these colleges should be debarred from taking students for the academic years of 2015-16 and 2016-17.

As per the rules, the Medical Council of India (MCI) gives permission to start a new medical college or renew the yearly permission or recognition of degrees on the basis of certain required standards. These include the number of faculty members in a medical college. This is supposed to be done on the basis of verification of the colleges through surprise inspections by the MCI.

If the Council finds any fake faculty during the verification of the declaration forms of all medical colleges for every academic year, the concerned college is barred for two years from admitting students into the MBBS course as per Clause 8(3)(1)(d) of the Establishment of Medical College Regulations, 1999. The Council also refers the matter to its Ethics Committee to investigate the fake faculty. Accordingly action is taken against the college.

The MCI, which is under attack from all corners for corruption, has amended its rules to check the menace of ghost faculty. It has decided to order the installation of biometric fingerprints in all medical colleges for registering the attendance of the faculty members, using online faculty attendance monitoring systems. The central application will also have the connectivity with an Aadhar platform for verification.

As per the amended rules, the MCI will also have CCTV cameras to provide live streaming of both classroom teaching and patient care in the hospital. The authorities feel that this will enable the MCI to keep a constant vigil on the standard of medical education in a particular college.

A Parliamentary Standing Committee report last year had pointed out the menace by saying “private medical colleges arrange ghost faculty and patients during inspections by MCI and no action is taken for the irregularity”. The report said that in contrast, action is taken against government medical colleges even on flimsy grounds, even though these colleges are “better performers” than the private colleges.

As per a Delhi High Court order, all assessment of medical colleges should be conducted as “surprise inspections”. However, the Committee report said: “It is in the Committee’s knowledge that some medical colleges have prior information of inspection dates and are, thus, able to keep ready the required number of ghost faculty and fake patients.”

MEDICAL COLLEGES DEBARRED

Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences (Bhubaneswar)
Malla Reddy Medical College for Women (Hyderabad)
NRI Institute of Medical Sciences (Visakhapatnam)
Malla Reddy Medical Sciences (Hyderabad)
RKDF Medical College Hospital & Research Centre (Bhopal)
SMBT Institute of Medical Sciences & Research Centre (Nandihill, Maharashtra)
Career Institute of Medical Sciences & Research Hospital (Lucknow)
Hi-Tech Medical College (Rourkela)
Advanced Institute of Medical Science & Research Centre (Bhopal)
Ashwini Rural Medical College, Hospital & Research Centre (Solapur)
Melmarruvathur Adhiprashakti Institute of Medical Sciences & Research (Tamil Nadu)
Chintpurni Medical College & Hospital (Pathankot)
Sri Aurobindo Institute of Medical Sciences (Indore)
Maharajah’s Institute of Medical Sciences (Nellimarla, Andhra Pradesh)