KOCHI: The Ernakulam Government Medical College (MCH), which came into being on December 17, 2013, has always been a neglected child. When it comes to getting speciality departments, postgraduate courses and filling up vacant teaching posts, especially those of head of the departments and associates, the institution is given a step-motherly treatment.“Even the Manjeri medical college, which is comparatively newer in the state, has twice the number of PG courses than us,” said a faculty member at Ernakulam MCH.
The faculty member said besides the non-sanctioning of PG courses, a major issue the institution faces is the lack of professors and associate professors.“The recent government order appointing professors was released the other day. However, there has been no mention of the Ernakulam GMCH where many departments have been struggling for the past few years. The general medicine, ENT, dermatology and neurology departments don’t have a single professor even. The posts of associate professors are also vacant in some of them. Many resident posts are also lying vacant. Even the Konni medical college got its vacant posts filled,” said the faculty member.
Another issue the college faces is the lack of speciality departments like urology, cardiothoracic, neurosurgery, gastroenterology, plastic surgery and pediatric surgery. Due to the absence of these departments and surgeons, the institution is forced to refer critical cases to the Kottayam MCH.“This is affecting the wellbeing of the patients. They lose out on valuable time and some even end up losing their lives. These precious lives could be saved if the college has speciality departments,” said the faculty member.
Though many representations and applications were sent to the directorate of medical education and also to the health minister regarding the needs of the MCH, nothing has been done yet, a source said.According to Dr Sanil Kumar, a member of the Justice Krishna Iyer Movement, the lack of an adequate number of faculties will lead to the cancellation of MD courses in the respective departments.
“In the near past, the Medical Council of India (MCI) had taken away the recognition of an MD course under a department in the MCH. Luckily, the decision was overruled after a student, who had passed the course from this institution, approached the High Court seeking cancellation of the MCI decision,” he said.
“It is tough to get a course sanctioned, but very easy to lose one,” he said.
“Earlier, the MCI used to conduct inspections in a very loud manner. However, they now conduct surprise inspections to improve the quality of medical education. If they are to conduct an inspection at the Ernakulam GMCH today, the institution will lose many of the MD courses,” Sanil said.
He said that for a medical college to function properly, it is of utmost importance to have PG students. “The MCH provides 24-hour patient care which is carried out by the PG students. The professors and the associates won’t be available every time. These students are also the ones who train the house surgeons,” he added. The director of medical education and the health minister could not be reached for comments.