Kerala has lost 350 MBBS seats for the academic year 2015-16, in the newly started Government Medical Colleges (GMCs) at Palakkad and Manjeri and at the DM Wayanad Institute of Medical Sciences (DM WIMS) in the private self-financing sector. This is the result of the Medical Council of India (MCI) refusing to renew permission to start new MBBS batches, citing serious shortfalls in the number of faculty, residents, and physical infrastructure.
The decision was taken by the MCI at its executive meeting held on February 10 at New Delhi.
MCI teams had visited the new medical colleges during December 2014 and January this year, to inspect and report on the physical and other teaching facilities in these institutions, as a prerequisite for new MBBS batches in the 2015-16 academic year.
MCI had accordingly denied permission to start the second MBBS batch (100 seats) at GMC Palakkad, third MBBS batch (100 seats) at GMC Manjeri, and the third MBBS batch (150 seats) at the Wayanad college.
Deficiencies
Apart from a long list of deficiencies in physical facilities in these institutions, MCI had reported a faculty deficiency of 29.34 per cent and shortage of residents of 43.28 per cent at the Palakkad GMC while the faculty shortage and residents’ shortage at Manjeri was 38 per cent and 45 per cent respectively.
As for DM WIMS, MCI had observed a faculty shortage of 41 per cent and residents’ shortage of 63 per cent. On the day of MCI’s assessment, the bed occupancy at the hospital was just 33 per cent, which was noted to be grossly inadequate.
The loss of 200 MBBS seats for the year 2015-16 could be a major embarrassment for the government as it had come in for serious criticism from all quarters for starting new medical colleges without creating adequate faculty posts or infrastructure.
Prior to the MCI’s assessment, the government had tried its best to make up for the shortfall in faculty and residents positions ‘by redeploying staff from other GMCs and transferring faculty to get through the MCI’s inspection.’ There was stiff resistance to this move from the medical college faculty associations.
Decision taken by MCI on February 10
MCI teams visited colleges in December and January