MCI team's early inspection rattles Malda medical college

MALDA: The Malda Medical College (MMC) that is yet to beef up infrastructure has been caught off guard with the Medical Council of India's (MCI) decision to visit the new medical colleges in Bengal this month. The visit was to take place in February, but was recently rescheduled by the MCI.
The worsened relation between the state and central government may have led to the early visits, feel the college authorities.Apart from the Malda college, the MCI team will visit the Murshidabad Medical College and Sagar Dutta Memorial Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata.
It may be recalled that MMC, that began its journey last year, got the biggest blow with the MCI denying approval for admission of the second batch of MBBS students early this year. The decision was taken after an MCI team that visited the college in March found it lacking in infrastructure.
The team was appalled that there were no exhausts, light, water supply and drainage facilities in the building. Besides, inadequate hostel for residents and residential quarters for teaching and non-teaching staff, it observed that there was no ICCU, ICU, SICU beds in the medical college. Even the library was not up to the mark.
In view of such lacunae, the MCI disapproved of fresh admissions and accordingly letters were sent to the state health department and the college in June. A similar letter of denial was also sent to Sagar Dutta Medical College.
Soon after, the state health department started hectic lobbying in Delhi and MCI renewed approval on grounds that the college would meet the requirements in the span of a year. But the situation has hardly improved.
MMC principal Dr U Bhadra conceded, "The MCI visit was most unexpected. We are not prepared yet. Had it been a few months later, the situation might have improved." He added that construction work was far from complete along with the introduction of new departments like ICU, ICCU or SICU. The staff strength is also not adequate. He feared the situation is no better at the other two medical colleges in the state.
However, preparations are being done on a war footing and leaves of all officers have been cancelled.
"In case the MCI team finds faults with the infrastructure and denies us further approval, there is little hope of convincing them this time as the ties between the state and the Centre have soured," said sources.