Academicians laud state's decision to set up four new medical colleges but also warn that students will suffer due to shortage of professors
Even as the state government has decided to come up with four new medical colleges, academicians said that merely increasing the number of colleges without having adequate teaching staff would be of no use. They are of the opinion that students would continue to suffer due to the shortage/lack of qualified teachers, a problem that colleges across the country have been facing.
The government plans to have three new medical colleges (100 MBBS seats in each) from the academic year 2021-22 at Alibaug, Sindhudurg and Satara, followed by one in Osmanabad from the year 2022-23. Speaking to mid-day, Dr Ketan Vagholkar, professor of surgery at DY Patil Medical college said, "Having more medical colleges is the need of the hour but rushing into starting the institutes will seriously affect the standard of medical education. Starting a new medical college is not just a mechanical process, but a quality-based one."
Dr Vagholkar added, "Stringent numeric faculty requirements as demanded by the apex registering authority in the past has led to the emergence of so called 'namesake faculty' who have no interest in teaching and are devoid of professional and leadership qualities."
Professor Emeritus Dr Vedprakash Mishra, national head of the Academic Programme of Indian Programme UNESCO Chair in Bio-Ethics Haifa and member of the International Committee for Bioethics for Asia Pacific Region, said, "It is laudable that the state government plans to have medical colleges at district headquarters. However, it needs to be borne in mind that medical colleges do not just mean infrastructure created out of brick and mortar. It has to be a vibrant place of teaching, learning, inculcation of clinical skills and desired research."
"The government ought to work out a definite plan for the purpose of having full-time teachers who would meet the requirements. Running and managing medical schools in a compromised manner end up in a generation of compromised manpower," he concluded. Dr. Wiqar Shaikh, professor of Medicine at Grant Medical College and Sir JJ Group of Hospitals, said, "These will be teaching institutions and therefore the teachers will have to be the backbone of these colleges. Medical education in India faces severe shortage of teachers. As the number of medical colleges will increase, the demand for teachers will go up and in turn create a shortage of faculty."
Dr. Subhash Hira, professor of Global Health at the University of Washington-Seattle, USA and former director of AIDS Research & Control Centre at Grant Medical College, Mumbai said, "Medical education and healthcare was initially regulated by Indian Medical Services (IMS). Post-independence, the IMS was gradually dismantled and these functions were handled by the Indian Administrative Services (IAS). Now, a game-changing move has happened with the establishment of the National Medical Commission (NMC) that will modernise medical education and standards of healthcare in India. I am glad to hear that Alibaug in Raigad district is likely to be the first among the six districts to have a medical college with assistance from NMC."
Dr. Shaikh said appointment of honorary medical teachers could be a solution. "The so-called honorary system was created because of a shortage of full-time medical teachers. Those teachers were supposed to work for a few hours in colleges every day and had both patient-care and teaching duties. However, honorary teachers were paid only a stipend (current honorarium in medical colleges is '1,500/ month) and were permitted private practice outside of their work."
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