Members of the Medical Council of India (MCI), who were on an inspection of some of the private medical colleges in Karnataka, were surprised when they entered the wards of their teaching hospitals. Not only were the number of patients much lower than what the records showed, but many looked quite in the pink of health to be in-patients.
The executive committee of the MCI, during a recent meeting, recommended that three private colleges — in Tumakuru, Kolar Gold Fields, and Devanahalli in Bengaluru — be debarred from admitting students for two academic years (2017-2018 and 2018-2019) as they were not able to fulfil the requirements mandated to run a college, which includes patient intake. All these colleges had shortage of faculty.
In addition, one more college has been recommended for similar action for not having the necessary infrastructure and faculty.
It is MCI which conducts periodic inspections of medical colleges and in turn recommends to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on permission to start or renew colleges.
The three colleges — Shridevi Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Hospital, Tumakuru; Sambhram Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, KGF, and the one at Devanahalli run by Akash Education and Development Trust — were given permission to run courses for 2016–17 by the Supreme Court-mandated oversight committee on the condition that they would fulfil all the conditions. However, the committee has observed in the minutes of the executive committee meeting, that Sambhram Institute of Medical Sciences and Research had 17 patients admitted in the paediatrics ward who were all from an orphanage with “very minor complaints which did not merit admission”. Similar was the situation in other wards. Also, while the institute had submitted reports stating that the bed occupancy was 62%, on the day of the assessment, it was found to be 17% at 10 a.m. The committee has called this claim “highly exaggerated”.
At Shridevi Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Hospital many patients admitted in the general medicine ward were those who had anaemia, gastritis, URI or gastroenteritis, while the orthopaedics ward had patients who were admitted for knee pain or lower backache, which the committee notes “could have been treated as outpatients”. The committee also found that signatures on the attendance sheet of some faculty members and residents differed in the morning and afternoon during verification.
The committee that inspected the institute at Devanahalli found that a patient who “looked healthy” was admitted for a fortnight in the general medicine ward without any diagnosis and treatment. It also found a junior resident in the department of general surgery was working at another institute as a senior resident for the same academic year.
Akash Education and Development Trust authorities were unavailable for comment despite repeated calls, while an official from the Sambhram institute said they had not seen the report and did not wish to comment.
