The shortage of staff could create problems for nascent Government Doon Medical College (GDMC) during the proposed visit of team of Medical Council of India (MCI). The team of MCI is expected to visit the college in the month of December, based on which the first renewal of letter of permission (lOP) granted for this academic session would be given to the college.
After many failed attempts, the department of medical education and GDMC got their act together when the MCI – the apex body of medical education- granted its approval for admission of 150 students in I year MBBS course on June 08 this year. However, after that many faculty members have left the job due to which more than 20 percent teaching positions are at present lying vacant. The department of medicine of the college is worst affected as three faculty members have left their jobs in last few months. In this department post of one Professor, two Associate Professors and two Senior Residents (SR) are lying vacant. Similarly two posts of Associate Professor in Gynecology and obstetrics and one post of Associate Professor in Surgery department are yet to filled. In department of Radio-diagnosis one post each of Associate Professor and Assistant Professor is vacant while two posts of Assistant Professor are to be filled in anesthesia. In the department of ophthalmology one post of Associate Professor is vacant while one post each of SR is vacant in department of pediatrics and Orthopedics respectively. One post of Associate Professor is also to be filled in Blood bank of the college.
It is expected that the visiting team of MCI could get annoyed with the large number of vacant faculty positions in the GDMC where the studies of first batch of MBBS course has commenced in this academic session.
The Director Medical education, Dr Ashutosh Sayana told The Pioneer that about 20 percent faculty positions are at present vacant in the college. He said that the department has sent a proposal to the Medical Education Recruitment Board (MERB) to start recruitment for these vacant positions. Dr Sayana expressed hope that the recruitment advertisement would be released probably within a week.
The MERB conducts walk in interviews to fill the faculty positions of GDMC.
The department pays a fixed salary of Rs 1.23 lakh to Professor while the Associate Professor gets a salary of Rs 1.10 lakh per month. The salary of Assistant Professor is fixed at Rs 95000 a month. Similarly the SR is employed on a salary of Rs 65000 while the pay of JR is Rs 47000. Apart from salary, the staff members are also provided accommodation by the government. The salary obligation of the DMC per month is Rs 1.71 Crores.