In the backdrop of the Delhi High Court order on December 20, 2013, in the Raipur University of Medical Science v/s Government of India case, directing the Medical Council of India (MCI) to conduct surprise inspections to ascertain the facilities in medical colleges, Kerala is poised to lose as many as 66 seats out of 517 seats in all the five government medical colleges along with a few seats in private medical colleges in the 2014-2015 academic year.
Following the court order, the MCI will be forced to turn down around 75 per cent of the requests to start new courses or enhancement of seats in the existing courses in various colleges across the country.
According to the minutes of the Post-graduate Medical Education Committee of the MCI that held nine meetings in 2014, the committee has decided not to recognise the enhanced intakes in as many as 33 courses in the specialty and super specialty cadre in Thiruvananthapuram, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Thrissur and Kozhikode Government Medical Colleges, for which it had given letter of permission (LoP) in 2010.
MD Microbiology in Kottayam MC, and MD Forensic medicine in Kottayam and Thrissur Government MCs and Amrita Institute of Medical Science, Edappally, face complete cancellation this year.
This might be the first time such a huge number of government seats in the PG sector are being derecognised by the MCI.
While the MCI has decided to use its powers, after conducting surprise inspections in medical colleges, recommending to the Union Government either to disapprove the plan to start new courses or not to recognise the enhanced intakes, the post-graduate medical education sector in the state has encountered an unprecedented crisis this year. The decision will derecognise the registration of as many as 624 students, especially 156 final year students, in various specialty and super specialty courses in government medical colleges.
“The decision will have serious repercussions as we will lose the opportunity to register with the MCI, which will prevent us from joining for a job in any of the hospitals,” said KMPGA former spokesperson Dr P S Jinesh.
The post-graduate committee also recommended to the Central Government to reject the applications received for starting new 24 courses in government and private medical colleges across the state, of which four each applications were from Government T D Medical College, Alappuzha and Cochin Medical College.
Meanwhile, the committee approved 10 new courses and enhanced intakes in 12 courses in government and private medical colleges as well, which would provide a cumulative number of 51 additional intakes this year.
According to sources, all the decisions were reportedly endorsed by the general body meeting of the MCI held recently.