Group ready to hand over med college to govt

Group ready to hand over med college to govt

Ramavarman T TNN

Thrissur: 04.06.2020

The NRK group, led by Dr Azad Moopen, has expressed its willingness to hand over DM WIMS medical college and other institutions at Meppadi in Wayanad to the government. The government has formed a seven-member committee to study the infrastructure and other aspects of the institutions.

The order issued by principal secretary Rajan N Khobragade said the panel will be headed by Dr Viswanathan from Thiruvananthapuram MCH and CJ Anitha will be the chairperson of technical committee. The order added that chartered accountant S Suresh Babu, member of the fee regulatory committee, will study the books, accounts and balance sheet of DM WIMS institutions and prepare a valuation report regarding movable and immovable assets.

Director of medical education Dr Remla Beevi said the committee will submit a report within three weeks. “Committee has been appointed primarily to evaluate whether it will be feasible to take over the institutions and at what cost,” she said.

The panel was constituted after Dr Moopen wrote a letter in this regard on June 5, 2020.DM Foundation has not given a clarification and sources in the group said it will issue one on Saturday.

But, leaders of Kerala Private Medical College Management Association said all 23 private medical colleges in state are battling financial crisis and many will have to be closed down or taken over by the government. Kerala Medical College, Cherpulassery has shut while SR Medical College, Varkala is on the verge of closure and admissions remain suspended at Kannur Anjarakandy medical college.

Association president Dr KM Navas and secretary Anilkumar Vallil blamed the government fee structure for the crisis. They said Rs 6-7 crore was need each month to run a medical college with 150 seats and the annual fee should be Rs 10-Rs 12 lakh/student. Government has fixed fee at Rs 6-7 lakh/student.

State planning board member Dr B Ekbal said financial crisis of DM WIMS medical institutions need not be the reason for the proposal. At present, there is no government medical college in Wayanad and government was exploring the possibility of setting up one there, he said, refuting the complaint of private medical colleges.

Government has formed a panel to study the infrastructure and other aspects of DM WIMS medical college and other institutions in Wayanad

HC notice to govt over med officers’ recruitment

HC notice to govt over med officers’ recruitment

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Jaipur: 04.06.2020

The Rajasthan High Court while issuing a notice to the state government stayed the condition of procuring certificate of registration from the medical council of Rajasthan for applying to the post of medical officer.

The court also asked the government to include the petitioners provisionally in the selection process. The single bench of Justice Ashok Kumar Gaur issued the order on a petition by Sachin Mehta.

Nitish Bagri, counsel for the petitioner, said, the state government had issued advertisement for the recruitment of 2,000 medical officers in June this year. The petitioners are currently pursuing their internship training programme. The Rajasthan Medical Council had issued them provisional registration certificates and the permanent registration certificate was to be issued only after completion of the aforesaid one-year internship.

They were aggrieved by a supplementary condition in the recruitment notification on June 2 this year whereby the candidates could only be termed as qualified on the ground that they procure permanent registration certificate issued by the Rajasthan Medical Council, on or before the examination date July 12, which was challenged in the court.

India records over 23,500 cases on Friday; 446 deaths

India records over 23,500 cases on Friday; 446 deaths

Recovery Rate Has However Crossed 60%

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: 04.06.2020

The Covid-19 pandemic continued to surge in the country as fresh cases rose to another record high on Friday, with over 23,500 reported during the day. With more than 22,000 new infections on Thursday, India’s coronavirus caseload has jumped by about 45,500 in just two days. The death toll from the virus has risen to 18,662 with 446 fatalities recorded on Friday.

Covid-19 cases in the country stood at 6,49,708, having crossed the 6 lakh mark just two days ago, as per data collated from state governments. Meanwhile, the recovery rate crossed 60%, with more than 3.93 lakh patients having been declared cured.

As many as 23,526 new cases were reported on Friday. The spike was again led by Maharashtra, which recorded a new high of 6,364 infections. At least seven other states reported their biggest single-day jump in cases, led by a massive increase of 1,892 in Telangana and 1,694 in Karnataka. The others were Uttar Pradesh (972 new cases), Gujarat (687), Bengal  (669), Odisha (561) and Kerala  (211).

Tamil Nadu became the second state in the country to cross the 1-lakh mark in total cases, reporting its second highest count of 4,329 on Friday. Delhi’s reported 2,520 cases, taking its caseload to over 94,600.

The southern states together accounted for nearly 9,000 fresh cases (8,987 to be precise), on the back of a major surge of the pandemic in the region since the past few days.

For the second day in a row, Maharashtra added over 6,000 cases to its Covid-19 tally. Friday’s 6,364 cases are the highest so far in a day, beating the previous high of 6,330 cases on Thursday. With this, the total number of cases in the state is now 1,92,990.

Maharashtra added 198 deaths on Friday, of which 150 were from the last 48 hours and 48 from previous days. The case fatality rate of the state as on Friday was 4.34%.

Continuing with its addition of a large number of cases, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (not counting Mumbai) reported 3,041, nearly 50% of the daily addition of cases in the state. Mumbai added 1,338 cases.

Tamil Nadu, 118 days after the first Covid-19 case was reported in the state, crossed the 100,000-mark on Friday, with an addition of 4,329 cases. The total count stands at 1,02,721 cases. Fatalities in the state rose to 1,385 as 64 more deaths were reported. Chennai, which is the worsthit city in the state, recorded 2,082 new cases, taking its tally to 64,689, while 33 deaths took the city’s toll closer to 1000-mark. On Friday, the official toll reached 996.

Karnataka on Friday reported its biggest single-day spike of 1,694 new cases, taking the total number of infections in the state to 19,710, the health department said. The state also recorded 21 fatalities pushing the death toll to 293. As many as 994 of the new cases were from Bengaluru.

BBMP personnel and ASHA workers sanitise the streets and stores near Kammanhalli in Bengaluru on Friday

No clarity on university exams yet, but students asked to pay the fee Colleges Charge Fee Up To ₹2K, Students Fume

No clarity on university exams yet, but students asked to pay the fee

Colleges Charge Fee Up To ₹2K, Students Fume

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Hyderabad: 04.06.2020

Though a decision on conducting university examinations in the state is pending, many colleges and state universities continue to charge examination fee from students.

While hearing a case on the common entrance tests (CETs) on June 30, the Telangana high court sought to know from the Telangana State Council of Higher Education (TSCHE) and state universities whether they want to do away with the undergraduate and postgraduate exams for now. The bench asked TSCHE and the universities to respond to it by July 9.

Students, however, raised concerns over the higher education institutions’ move to collect exam fee without any clarity on whether the exams will be held or not. Many colleges and universities have issued notification seeking payment of exam fee in the range of ₹500 to ₹2,000. In the absence of clear guidelines from the government on resumption of classes, the move has irked students.

“The university is constantly extending the last date for payment of examination fee. On the notification, it clearly states that fee once paid cannot be refunded or adjusted for any future examination,” said Vamshi Reddy, a management student. He raised concerns over refund by the universities and colleges if the examination is postponed/cancelled.

Students have called for boycott of exam fee until there is clarity from the TSCHE or universities on the examination.

“If the universities decide to promote all the students based on their average marks of first seven semesters then what is the point of collecting exam fee? When there are no guidelines on resumption of online classes or on exams, how can the universities charge exam fee?” asked Venkat Balmoor, president, National Students Union of India, Telangana unit.

Officials from state universities refused to comment on the subject as the matter is subjudice and said that their response will be submitted in court.

NIMS to begin human trials of Covid-19 vaccine soon

NIMS to begin human trials of Covid-19 vaccine soon

Sribala.Vadlapatla@timesgroup.com

Hyderabad:  04.06.2020

The Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) in Hyderabad is among 12 other centres across the country to begin human trials for a coronavirus vaccine soon.

The vaccine trial proposal was placed before the ethics committee on Friday at NIMS after the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) added the hospital cum-research-facility to the list of centres.

“Any such trial needs permission from the hospital's ethics committee, and as a first step, we did that and expecting the nod in a day or two, before we start the trials,” a top official from the health department told TOI.

The vaccine to be developed by Bharat Biotech will be applied intravenously to volunteers. The vaccine trial will continue for six months and only healthy people in the age group between 22-50 years will be selected for human trials, irrespective of gender.

Institutes with clinical pharmacology wings and experience of handling similar human trials, have been selected for the human trials.

NIMS in the last 12 years has the experience of conducting about a dozen human trials, including that of the successful meningococcal vaccine.

“There are only six or seven very experienced institutes in the entire country having done phase 1 clinical trials,” said a doctor at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences.

Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences is among 12 other centres from across the country to begin human trials for a coronavirus vaccine soon

Govt bungles, doctor gets tsunami of calls

Govt bungles, doctor gets tsunami of calls

Manuja.Veerappa@timesgroup.com

04.06.2020

Bengaluru: At 7.30am on Thursday, Dr Ashwin S answered a call on his cellphone. It was the beginning of a nightmare for the non-invasive cardiologist as his phone kept buzzing, virtually non-stop, through the day.

About 50 calls were from relatives of Covid-19 patients, pleading for a bed in the ‘hospital’ in which he ‘works’. The callers believed he worked at Shekhar Hospital on Bull Temple Road, Bengaluru, but Ashwin was helpless since he isn’t an employee there. The barrage of calls was a courtesy of the state government’s bungling.

The genesis of Ashwin’s woes lay in a public notice issued by the department of health and family welfare, listing 73 private hospitals in the city where 50% of beds were reserved for Covid patients. Besides names and addresses of the hospitals, the notice also listed a contact person and his/her phone number for each hospital, besides nodal officials from Bescom and BBMP. The contact for Shekhar Hospital was listed as one Dr Ashwini S, but the number was Ashwin’s. Neither Ashwin nor Shekhar Hospital knows how the number made it to the list.

“I’ve been getting calls for the past couple of days,” the doctor said. “When asked where they got my number from, all callers have a common answer: A WhatsApp forward. I haven’t had much sleep because people are calling at odd hours. These are distress calls so you have to answer them. But it is taking a toll on me mentally. We are frontline workers in very trying circumstances so it’s not easy to deal with a situation like this.”

It only got worse the health department’s list was published in several dailies on Friday. “I can’t switch off my phone because I have to attend to the needs of my patients. I think it is a prank which is in very bad taste because it is a question of life and death. I have been texting the number of Shekhar Hospital to callers,” said Ashwin. Shekhar Hospital said it was unaware a wrong contact number was published until Ashwin brought it to their notice.

“Dr Ashwin worked with us in the past, but we don’t know how his number has been listed as our hospital contact,” said Dr Kaushik Aithal from Shekhar Hospital. “We were not asked for any contact number. We have written to the district health office (DHO), Bengaluru Urban, demanding the number be changed.”

The hospital, in the letter to DHO, has listed the contact number as: 9482676525.

The contact for Shekhar Hospital was listed as one Dr Ashwini S, but the number was Ashwin’s. Neither Ashwin nor Shekhar Hospital is aware how the number made it to the government list.

ICMR’s Aug 15 deadline to vaccine maker stirs a row

ICMR’s Aug 15 deadline to vaccine maker stirs a row

Council: Only Meant To Speed Up Process

Sushmi.Dey@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:  04.06.2020

An Indian Council of Medical Research letter which sought fast-tracking of approvals relating to clinical trials and spoke of the launch of a vaccine by August 15 stirred the medical and scientific community on Friday, with questions being asked on how such deadlines could be adhered to given the complexity and time required for trials on humans.

A vaccine candidate by Bharat Biotech received approval to enter initial phases of human clinical trials only earlier this week. In a letter to Bharat Biotech and chosen hospitals for trials, ICMR director general Balram Bhargava advised “to fast-track all approvals related to initiation of the clinical trial and ensure that the subject enrolment is initiated no later than July 7” in view of the public health emergency and “urgency to launch the vaccine”.

Belagavi hospital set for ‘mission Aug’

Jeevan Rekha Hospital in Belagavi is among 12 institutions selected by ICMR to fasttrack clinical trial approvals for indigenous Covid-19 vaccine candidate — Covaxin — reports Shreyas HS.

Hospital director Amith S Bhate said he was informed two days ago. “We are ready to complete the mission by August,” he said, adding that confirmation from the state government is awaited. P 2

‘Vaccine timeline unrealistic’

ICMR has partnered with Bharat Biotech to develop a vaccine called Covaxin.

Official sources said the health ministry had asked ICMR about the letter and was informed that the objective was to speed up the processes relating to vaccine development rather than set any hard deadlines.

"We need the vaccine at the earliest and that was what ICMR wanted to convey," a source said. ICMR officials also told TOI that no deadlines were being set.

However, the tone of the letter, suggesting that noncompliance will be treated seriously, generated concern over whether processes were being rushed. "It is envisaged to launch the vaccine for public health use latest by August 15 after completion of all clinical trials. BBIL is working expeditiously to meet the target, however final outcome will depend on the cooperation of all clinical trial sites involved in this project," Bhargava said in the letter dated July 2.

The content of the letter mainly suggested a timeline and the accent was to stick to it, but some experts called it "unrealistic" and even "unethical". Health experts also raised concerns about ICMR’s role as a co-creator of the vaccine and also attributing timelines resulting in a "conflict of interest".

Zydus vaccine gets DCGI nod for trials

Ahmedabad: Pharmaceutical and healthcare major Zydus Cadila has received approval from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) and Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) to start Phase I and II human clinical trials in India of its vaccine candidate for Covid-19. Called ZyCoV-D, it is a plasmid DNA vaccine candidate for Covid-19. Zydus Cadila is the second company, after Bharat Biotech, to have received regulatory permission to conduct human clinical trials for a potential Covid-19 vaccine. TNN