The Union Health Ministry on Wednesday slammed the Medical Council of India (MCI) for failing to review the compliance reports of several Government medical colleges within the set time-frame which, it said, will hamper the fate of over 6,000 medical seats.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan in a letter to the MCI president Jayashreeben Mehta asked the Council to urgently take a call on compliance reports filed by educational institutions all over the country.
He also asked the MCI to file an application in the Supreme Court for extension of letter of permission to August 8, 2014 so that the 150 cases can be reviewed and scrapping of 6,387 existing MBBS seats is prevented.
The move came after the MCI, citing its inability to meet the medical admission timelines set by the Supreme Court, expressed its reluctance to review the 150 cases referred to it by the Government during June 24th to July 4th, 2014 to prevent existing 6,387 medical seats from being scrapped, especially in Government colleges.
It had earlier rejected their application for seats increase citing shortage of infrastructure, among others.
However, Harsh Vardhan said that "most of the deficiencies in the MCI's reports are about problems with air-conditioning, or about partition walls in buildings and, of course, the shortage of faculty which is an old irritant.
"But even though most of the colleges have complied with the MCI's demands, there has been no acknowledgement. This cannot be expected of the MCI," he said.
The Minister said senior officials of the Ministry, including Health Secretary lov Verma, and Joint Secretary Vishwas Mehta have been forwarding the recommendations of the hearing committee and compliance reports submitted by the various medical colleges. "But the MCI's response is awaited, causing anxiety in all quarters."
Health Secretary lov Verma said that the government cannot afford to accept the possibility of losing such a large number of seats on the basis of mere technicalities.
He said that this is worrying as in a long term effect it would result into a deeper crisis in the availability of qualified doctors. As it happens, India has just one doctor per 1,700 people compared to the global average of 1.5 per 1,000, he added.