States use mass transfers to deal with NMC inspections

NEW DELHI: The transfer of 69 faculty members from 10 medical colleges to GMERS Medical College in Vadnagar, Gujarat, in anticipation of an inspection by the National Medical Commission (NMC) hit the headlines last month in Ahmedabad. While the transfer order blatantly stating that the mass transfer for the purpose of college inspection might be unusual, mass transfers among various government medical colleges have become more common over the last decade. That's because state governments have opened more than 160 medical colleges in the last decade but struggled to appoint the required number of faculty.Private medical colleges have been in the news for 'ghost' faculty. In many states, transferring faculty from one government medical college to another facing impending inspection has been going on since the time of the erstwhile Medical Council of India. However, the sudden spurt in new government colleges being opened has exacerbated this problem. Instead of planning ahead for faculty intake for new colleges many state governments have been using contractual appointments and making do with transfer from existing colleges whenever there is an inspection."Currently six medical colleges run by GMERS are going to be inspected by the NMC. With regard to this inspection, many medical teachers have been transferred. Thus in the interest of providing medical services to patients in the hospital, and taking into consideration the education of students, the summer vacation of all medical teachers in all colleges hereby stands cancelled," stated an order dated March 17, 2022 issued by the CEO of Gujarat Medical Education and Research Society (GMERS), a government-owned society that runs eight medical colleges. Vadnagar medical college, for which the mass transfers were being done, was started in 2017 and two others were opened in 2015 in Himmatnagar and Junagadh.Despite such mass transfers being reported in local newspapers and such orders of transfers being available in the public domain, the NMC has done nothing to tackle the issue. Gujarat is not the only state which does this. Most states including Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Kerala and Rajasthan seem to be using mass transfers to pass the NMC inspection though they do not state in the transfer order that it is being done for inspection. Dozens of senior and junior faculty and even senior residents are transferred at one stroke, usually from older and larger colleges to newer ones facing inspection. This cannot but affect patient care and teaching in the colleges from where the faculty is sent.On July 29 last year, the medical education department of Chhattisgarh temporarily transferred 27 faculty members and 10 senior residents from various medical colleges to those in Mahasamund and another 27 faculty members and nine senior residents to Kanker. The two colleges were inspected on August 23 and 24. Mahasamund failed to get NMC approval despite this while Kanker got permission for 100 seats though it had sought permission for 150 seats.The NMC maintains a database of faculty of all medical colleges on its website. "If the database is mandatorily updated by all colleges, such mass transfers would immediately be obvious to the regulatory authority. In that case, the NMC ought not to give nod to such colleges because that is cheating students who take admission in such medical colleges which will not even have the required faculty," said an associate professor in a medical college."Government is in a rush to create more medical colleges. Pumping money may only get infrastructure but not faculties (sic) or patients. Quality can't be assured without addressing shortage of faculty and clinical material," tweeted Dr Shridhar Rao, president of the National MSc Medical Teachers Association, adding that a rigid NMC was making matters worse.