CHENNAI: While the Medical Council of India (MCI) has ordered action against a doctor for appearing as faculty for two private medical colleges, Express found out that this practice was prevalent even at government medical colleges.
In one such case, a doctor was shown as faculty of Government Medical College at Omandurar Estate at the time of MCI inspection before according approval, though he was a faculty of the Madras Medical College.
According to sources, the trouble started when the proposed medical college situated in Omandurar Estate applied for recognition. As per MCI norms, a medical college should have an affiliated hospital. The authorities zeroed in on Government Kasturba Gandhi Hospital for Women and Children, which was upgraded into a general hospital for this. This was not easy, as they had to put in place all departments before the upgradation.
In the process, Dr G Leonard Ponraj became the professor and head of Orthopaedics Department of Government Medical College in Omandurar Estate, which is affiliated to Government Kasturba Gandhi General Hospital. He is also the professor and head of Arthroscopy and Sports Injury Department, Government Multi-Super Speciality Hospital, situated in the same Omandurar Estate campus, but affiliated to Madras Medical College. Sources said this was done during the 2015-16 MCI inspection to obtain approval for the nascent medical college. However, they added that unlike in the case of private doctors, Ponraj was not paid two salaries.
When Express went to take photographs of the name board of the doctor displayed at two different hospital premises, a staff of Government Kasturba Gandhi General Hospital tried to prevent it saying that the name board was old and the preparations were going on to change the name board and other posts. However, when contacted, a senior health department official denied that they had shown one faculty at two colleges. “We cannot show the same person in two different places. Multi-Super Speciality Hospital in Omandurar is totally a different set-up affiliated to Madras Medical College,” the official said, maintaining that the orthopaedics department at the Omandurar Medical College is functioning under a different head of the department.