Archive for month: July, 2024

Mumbai: After the National Medical Commission’s (NMC) rejection to approve the proposed government medical colleges in Maharashtra, the State Government is ramping up the manpower as it is planning to appeal before the Commission in this regard.

Confirming this, a senior official from the State Medical Education Department told Indian Express, “We will appeal against the decision. Simultaneously, we are ramping up manpower.”

The Department is planning to fill up the faculty positions on a contractual basis and aims to fill up at least 30% of the 800 pending positions of Assistant Professors, 167 positions of Associate Professors, and 400 positions of Professors.

Medical Dialogues recently reported that only two out of twelve medical colleges in Maharashtra have received the National Medical Commission’s (NMC) approval for starting new medical colleges.

“We are committed to meeting all conditions set by the commission,” a senior department official told the Daily.

Meanwhile, commenting on the matter, the Secretary of the Medical Education Department, Dinesh Waghmare highlighted that the shortage of skilled manpower was a key reason for NMC’s rejection of the proposals. He added, “If necessary, we will arrange contractual manpower.”

In order to ensure that there is an adequate number of staff in the newly established rural medical colleges such as Gadchiroli, Hingoli, and Jalna, the State is considering transferring professors from the existing medical colleges. However, such participations will be voluntary in nature.

Currently, there are around 8,000 MBBS seats available in Maharashtra. Addition of 800 medical seats in the new medical colleges is aimed to enhance the healthcare access in the State. In this regard, the State Government has allocated approximately Rs 97 crore from its supplementary budget to staff and equip these new institutes.

Recently the Maharashtra Medical Education Minister Hasan Mushrif also stated that the Government was trying to start 10 new medical colleges in the State from this academic year. 

he had also mentioned that an appeal would be filed with the NMC for the proposed nine GMCs, adding that efforts were being made to obtain permission for these colleges by submitting an undertaking regarding the commission of errors by the government at the hearing of this appeal.

Also Read: Maharashtra to file appeal before NMC for proposed 9 GMCs

Patiala: Following the suicide of final year PG anaesthesia medico due to alleged duty stress and academic workload, the resident doctors of Government Medical College and Rajindra Hospital, Patiala, have urged the college authorities to conduct a fair investigation and demanded the inclusion of their members in the internal fact-finding committee to ensure transparency.

In a memorandum handed over to the acting director principal of the medical college hospital Dr. Ashwani Kumar by the delegation led by Dr Akshay Seth and Dr Nrip Jindal, the Residents Doctors Association (RDA) called for immediate action and a fair and transparent investigation into the doctor’s death case.

Also read- Duty Stress, Academic Workload: GMC Patiala MD Anaesthesia Medico Commits Suicide

“Given the seriousness of these concerns, we urge you to reconsider our request and include members from the resident doctors’ association in the inquiry committee. Failing to do so will compel us to escalate the matter further,” mentioned the memorandum as reported by The Tribune. 

Medical Dialogues team had previously reported that a final year PG anaesthesia medico at Government Medical College (GMC) Patiala allegedly committed suicide by injecting an unidentified harmful substance in her hostel room. According to the police, the doctor was struggling with depression and was under extreme academic stress over her thesis leading her to take the extreme step of administering something “poisonous” with an injection into her body.

The 29-year-old student from Chennai, Tamil Nadu was receiving treatment for stress related to her academic and professional work pressure. She was finding it challenging to manage her academic workload and had requested a break to concentrate on finishing her thesis as she was also overwhelmed by her work duties.

In response to the incident, the RDA expressed concerns about the current investigation process, citing reports that resident doctors were being discouraged from providing statements. 

In a communique, the association stated, “There are reports that some resident doctors are being discouraged from providing statements regarding this case (suicide), which raises concern about transparency and fairness.”

In a letter to the college administration, the RDA expressed concerns about the current investigation process, citing reports that resident doctors were being discouraged from providing statements. “This raises significant concerns about the transparency and fairness of the investigation,” the communique stated.

Earlier, the police investigating the case stated that the victim was preparing her thesis for her postgraduate studies. However, she was upset that her thesis was not accepted because the computer on which she had saved the file for her thesis crashed, and she had to make the thesis all over again. The police discovered during the preliminary investigation that the thesis was supposed to be submitted by July 15. Unfortunately, she had to redo it, leading to its rejection and causing her distress.

Also read- NIMS Anaesthesia Professor Ends Life By Injecting Self With Drug