This med college produces docs but has few patients
Patient Care Is Most Crucial Aspect Of Medical Training, RKDF Rigged MCI Inspections With Fake Patients
Rema Nagarajan & P Naveen TNN
27.02.2019 TOI
For four years, Medical Council of India (MCI) repeatedly flagged concerns about a private college in Madhya Pradesh but could not stop it from taking in three batches of students. One batch of 150 doctors is now in its final year of MBBS while another just appeared for second-year exams.
The story of RKDF Medical College, which finally faced a Supreme Court crackdown in January, shows how blatantly such colleges exploit the legal process to stay in business.
MCI and a Supreme Court-appointed inspection committee had noted “fictitious” patients in the teaching hospital, falsified medical records and “grossly inadequate” patient load. Although the SC has ordered that the third batch admitted in 2017-18 be shifted to other private colleges in MP, the 2014-15 and 2016-17 batches remain at RKDF college. It’s anyone’s guess just how many real patients these soon-to-be doctors have seen.
It was business as usual at the college when TOI visited it around 11.30am on January 30. The dean, Dr S S Kushwaha, offered a tour of the college and hospital to show it had enough patients and required facilities. He also suggested a visit to the hostels to talk to students. However, TOI found an empty hospital with wards locked up, defunct operation theatres, no patients in the postoperative ward or anywhere else, barring a handful in the OPD area. The OPD rooms had no doctors, and the blood bank was deserted too.
The hostel visit didn’t materialise, ostensibly because students had left after the exams. When told no patients or students were around, Dr Kushwaha claimed patients mostly visited the hospital after 4.30pm. However, on a repeat visit the same evening, he admitted there were no patients, hence no point in repeating a tour of the hospital.
An employee who played guide said the college has three “public relations officers” who bus in ‘patients’ from nearby villages before inspections. Dr Kushwaha said they had separate funds to get “clinical material” (read patients) for students.
Incidentally, Dr Kushwaha was Madhya Pradesh’s director of medical education from January 2014 to the time he joined RKDF college as dean immediately after his retirement in 2015.
Asked why teaching is allowed to continue at a college the SC had found to have “indulged in large-scale malpractices” to comply with the minimum standards for admitting students, officials in the MP Directorate of Medical Education said it was up to Medical Council of India or the courts to shut it down.
“The students studying there have not complained or gone to court. How can we take any action?” said an official while agreeing that students passing out as doctors without treating genuine patients and getting proper training was a concern.
RKDF college is shown on the MCI website as affiliated to the state-run Barkatullah University, though Kushwaha said they were not affiliated anymore. Asked if their affiliation had been withdrawn after the SC order, he said that was not possible as they are affiliated to Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan University, a private university owned by the RKDF Group, which runs a veritable education empire in Madhya Pradesh, including colleges of nursing, pharmacy, dental science, homoeopathy and Ayurveda.
What that suggests is for the RKDF Group, and Dr Kushwaha, the crores in SC-imposed fines or being labelled by the apex court as a fraudulent institution is no more than a pause. The business of education rolls on without any full stops.
Patient Care Is Most Crucial Aspect Of Medical Training, RKDF Rigged MCI Inspections With Fake Patients
Rema Nagarajan & P Naveen TNN
27.02.2019 TOI
For four years, Medical Council of India (MCI) repeatedly flagged concerns about a private college in Madhya Pradesh but could not stop it from taking in three batches of students. One batch of 150 doctors is now in its final year of MBBS while another just appeared for second-year exams.
The story of RKDF Medical College, which finally faced a Supreme Court crackdown in January, shows how blatantly such colleges exploit the legal process to stay in business.
MCI and a Supreme Court-appointed inspection committee had noted “fictitious” patients in the teaching hospital, falsified medical records and “grossly inadequate” patient load. Although the SC has ordered that the third batch admitted in 2017-18 be shifted to other private colleges in MP, the 2014-15 and 2016-17 batches remain at RKDF college. It’s anyone’s guess just how many real patients these soon-to-be doctors have seen.
It was business as usual at the college when TOI visited it around 11.30am on January 30. The dean, Dr S S Kushwaha, offered a tour of the college and hospital to show it had enough patients and required facilities. He also suggested a visit to the hostels to talk to students. However, TOI found an empty hospital with wards locked up, defunct operation theatres, no patients in the postoperative ward or anywhere else, barring a handful in the OPD area. The OPD rooms had no doctors, and the blood bank was deserted too.
The hostel visit didn’t materialise, ostensibly because students had left after the exams. When told no patients or students were around, Dr Kushwaha claimed patients mostly visited the hospital after 4.30pm. However, on a repeat visit the same evening, he admitted there were no patients, hence no point in repeating a tour of the hospital.
An employee who played guide said the college has three “public relations officers” who bus in ‘patients’ from nearby villages before inspections. Dr Kushwaha said they had separate funds to get “clinical material” (read patients) for students.
Incidentally, Dr Kushwaha was Madhya Pradesh’s director of medical education from January 2014 to the time he joined RKDF college as dean immediately after his retirement in 2015.
Asked why teaching is allowed to continue at a college the SC had found to have “indulged in large-scale malpractices” to comply with the minimum standards for admitting students, officials in the MP Directorate of Medical Education said it was up to Medical Council of India or the courts to shut it down.
“The students studying there have not complained or gone to court. How can we take any action?” said an official while agreeing that students passing out as doctors without treating genuine patients and getting proper training was a concern.
RKDF college is shown on the MCI website as affiliated to the state-run Barkatullah University, though Kushwaha said they were not affiliated anymore. Asked if their affiliation had been withdrawn after the SC order, he said that was not possible as they are affiliated to Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan University, a private university owned by the RKDF Group, which runs a veritable education empire in Madhya Pradesh, including colleges of nursing, pharmacy, dental science, homoeopathy and Ayurveda.
What that suggests is for the RKDF Group, and Dr Kushwaha, the crores in SC-imposed fines or being labelled by the apex court as a fraudulent institution is no more than a pause. The business of education rolls on without any full stops.
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