Medical education push hits roadblock

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 5

In a setback to Haryana Government’s endeavour to have a medical college in each district, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has disapproved establishment of four new colleges in the state. Four others have been denied renewal of permission to admit students for 2018-19 due to poor infrastructure.

Besides these, the name of one more medical college figures in the list of colleges in the country whose request for increase in number of seats has been disapproved by the ministry in its recent order.

The ministry has disapproved the requests for establishment of Haryana Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Kaithal; Al-Falah School of Medical Sciences and Research, Faridabad; Gangaputra Medical College, Jind; and Baba Mungipa Medical College and Research Centre for session 2018-19.

The order said that the request has been disapproved after considering the recommendations of the MCI.

This means these colleges will not be able to admit any student this year and will have to apply again next year after removing deficiencies in the infrastructure pointed out by the MCI during its inspection.

The request for renewal of permission has been denied to four medical colleges of the state. As per the ministry’s order, the request for renewal of permission to the second batch of Adesh Medical College and Hospital, Shahbad; and third batch of World College of Medical Sciences and Research —- with an intake of 150 seats each — has been disapproved.

Besides this, the request for renewal of 50 additional seats to Sree Guru Gobind Singh Tercentenary Medical College, Hospital and Research Centre, Gurugram; for its second batch and to Maharaja Agarsen Medical College, Agroha (Hisar); has been disapproved by the ministry.

This means that the Gurugram medical college will be permitted to admit 100 students to MBBS instead of 150 last year and Agroha Medical College will have an intake of 50 students against 100 during the past two years.

Last year, two medical colleges of the state — World College of Medical Sciences, Jhajjar; and NC Medical College and Hospital, Israna (Panipat) — had been barred from admitting students for two years, according to sources.

BPS Government Medical College for Women, Khanpur (Sonipat); had applied for increase of intake from 100 to 150 seats, but the request had been turned down for want of proper infrastructure.

Dr Shaleen, Director of Medical Education and Research, said that the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare takes the decision based on inspections of the colleges by the Medical Council of India.

He, however, said that the disapproval to the request of renewal of permission would not affect the students of the previous batches.

“Once these colleges improve their infrastructure by removing the discrepancies pointed out by the MCI, the permission to admit students can be renewed,” he said.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s order has put a question mark over the hurry in which the Haryana Government is trying to open a medical college in each of the 22 districts of the state by its own means and also by roping in private players as many of the new colleges have been found wanting in infrastructure.

Sources said that the situation is no better in government medical colleges of the state as requests are received by the state Health Department to depute some medical officers there every time the MCI is to conduct inspections.

from The Tribune https://ift.tt/2kPdAHs