The strike by the faculty of government medical colleges (GMCs) over the redeployment issue has initiated a discussion on the quality of medical education in the State and the demand for institutional autonomy for GMCs. Many in the medical education field say autonomy is the only way forward to ensure that these institutions become centres of excellence.
Faculty in GMCs are on strike in protest against the government’s decision to transfer 27 posts from the older GMCs to the newly created ones at Manjeri and Idukki, to make up for the shortage of faculty there as both institutions stand to lose Medical Council of India (MCI)’s recognition.
Does the State need so many medical colleges when it has already crossed the required doctor-patient ratio of 1:700 is the moot question that has been raised. Already, the State has 30-odd Medical Colleges and some 3,350 MBBS seats. With the demand for medical manpower import declining abroad, many predict that issues of quality and that of supply exceeding demand – as has happened in the nursing education sector – will befall the medical education sector .
“Yet, if creating more GMCs is a matter of policy, then creating adequate faculty posts for each should also be a part of the policy,”. a senior GMC faculty said.
A white paper on the s medical education sector, prepared by a committee constituted by the State branch of the Indian Medical Association, had recommended the granting of institutional autonomy to each GMC, ending the current system of inter-institution transfer. It recommended that faculty to each GMC be recruitedthrough the PSC or a Medical Services Recruitment Board. The panel was headed by former Director of Medical Education, K.A. Kumar.
“One of the main reasons why the State has few good medical education and research centres is because none of our GMCs have its own permanent faculty. Medical colleges are centres of patient care, higher education, and research and each of these processes require continuity. Institutions such as the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences & Technology; Christian Medical College and Hospital, Vellore; All-India Institute of Medical Sciences; or the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh; have been able to maintain its eminence because these are not destabilised on a regular basis through shifting of its faculty,” the faculty member said.
Many in the medical education field feel that the issue of supply exceeding demand will soon befall the medical education sector.
