The Health Department has blacklisted 22 private institutes in the district for offering nursing and various other paramedical courses without accreditation and permission from the authorities concerned.
The office of the Joint Director (Health Services) has said none of the 22 institutes, offering paramedical and various other courses, secured necessary permission from the Secretariat, Nursing Council of India or the Director of Medical and Rural Health Services.
The office of Joint Director (Health Services) warned parents and students against joining these institutes. If anyone joined them they would be doing it at their own risk, sources in the office said.
A five-member team, headed by the Collector, is empowered to take action against these institutes if they went ahead with admission for the coming academic year, the sources said.
Blacklisting of the unauthorised institutes followed a Madras High Court order, the sources said.
Permission letters
not produced
All these institutes were given copies of the High Court order passed last year and sufficient time to get the necessary accreditation and affiliations. However, none of the 22 institutes could produce the permission letters, the sources said.
The School of Nursing at the Government Headquarters Hospital here was the only institute to have accreditation to offer nursing and other paramedical courses.
The blacklisting comes amid reports that these institutes started distributing pamphlets to students in various schools about the courses they offered.
Meanwhile, a spokesman of the Private Institutes’ Association said that they offered only skill development courses to help the educated unemployed poor students to secure employment in private sector.
These institutes offered courses such as Healthcare Assistance, Hotel Management, Catering Technology and Fire Safety, collecting Rs. 12,000 to Rs. 15,000 for one-year courses and double the amount for two-year courses.
These institutes, which are functioning for the past 10 years, faced an onslaught early this year after the death of three women students of SVS Yoga Medical College triggered a State-wide controversy and brought to light functioning of fake institutes in the State.
