Doctors in the private sector will soon be allowed to teach as faculty in medical colleges, including those run by the Government in the country.
The long pending move by the Medical Council of India (MCI) aims to meet the increasing need of faculty in the medical institutions which are presently grappling with acute shortage of qualified professionals. So far, the private medical practitioners, except in a few States, are barred from teaching in the medical colleges.
Presently, there are over 350 medical colleges — including in private and Government sector (161 colleges) across the States with the total intake capacity of 45,252 UG seats and 2,250 PG seats.
However, many in the field expressed apprehension about the success of the measure saying that it might encourage nepotism and corruption with the entry of the private doctors in the teaching line.
RK Srivastava, newly elected chairman of the Board of Governor (BOG) of the MCI rejected the apprehension saying that some States like Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh has already opened the teaching faculty to the private sector and it will be State Governments’ prerogative to take the decision in the matter.
Sources in the MCI said that to begin with the trained professionals from private sector may be asked to serve as honorary faculty especially in those subjects such as forensic medicine and anatomy where there is acute shortage of teachers.
They said many medical colleges — including those operated by the Government face threat of de-recognition due to the shortage of qualified teachers. The move would help them to meet the requisite faculty and ensure minimum standard requirements as per the regulations.
The problem is found to be significantly acute in the new colleges particularly those proposed by the State Governments.
In fact, recently, a number of steps have been taken by the Union Health Ministry in order to meet the increasing need of faculty, which includes increasing the teacher student ratio in postgraduate courses to 1:2. The ratio has further been increased to 1:3 for some specialties such as Anesthesiology, Forensic Science and Radio-therapy.
Also, age limit for appointment/extension/re-employment against posts of teachers/dean/principal/director in medical colleges has already been enhanced from 65 to 70 years while Diplomate of the National Board (DNB) of Examination qualifications have also been recognised for appointment to various faculty posts in medical colleges.
As per the existing regulations, doctors with postgraduate diploma qualifications can be employed in medical colleges/institutions as tutor/demonstrator/residents /senior residents.