The Hindu : Trust flouts norms for medical college

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 24, 2003

National

National

Trust flouts norms for medical college

By Manas Dasgupta

GANDHINAGAR April 23. A gross violation of Medical Council rules and false declaration by a trust, in which a present and a former Union Minister, both from Gujarat, are trustees, has come to light.

The trust in which the former Union Minister of State for Health and Chemicals, A.K. Patel, and the Minister of State for Heavy Industries, Vallabh Kathiriya, are trustees, applied to the Medical Council of India for approval of a 150-seat capacity medical college in Waghodia, on the outskirts of Vadodara, last year without fulfilling the basic requirements.

The trust gave a false declaration along with the application that a 300-bed functional hospital, equipped with staff and patients, existed in the same complex where it proposed to set up the college.

In a surprise inspection today, carried out at the instance of the Director of Medical Education of the State Government by a seven-member team headed by the dean of the B. J. Medical College, Ahmedabad, it was found that no hospital existed in the complex.

Under the MCI rules, the applicant for a medical college should set up a fully-equipped functional hospital having double the capacity of the proposed college and with at least 80 per cent patient occupancy.

The trust claimed that it had set up a 300-bed hospital, equipped with staff and other facilities, but later said it was closed down temporarily for renovation during the Diwali holidays last year.

Surprisingly, apparently under political pressure, the State Government had given permission for setting up the medical college and the Gujarat University granted affiliation to it. It was proposed to start from the next academic year pending approval by the MCI.

The same trust also ran a 100-seat capacity dental college and a 30-seat physiotherapy institute in the same complex for the last two years.

The dental college is attached to a dental hospital in Vadodara, which too was found to be far from adequate.

The approval for the dental college was given when Mr. Patel was the Health Minister in the previous Atal Behari Vajpayee Cabinet.

He is also the State Government representative on the MCI for the last 10 years and was given the third five-year term recently and is apparently well conversant with the rules of the medical council.

The MCI was due to send its inspection team soon, but the surprise check might have dampened the prospects of granting approval to the proposed college.

The frustrated officials of the trust allegedly manhandled some members of the inspection team forcing them to suspend further inspection.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National