By IANS
Bhopal : The Madhya Pradesh government has decided to provide necessary equipment and adequate staff to the five medical colleges in the state that are facing possible de-recognition from the Medical Council of India (MCI), say official sources.
The MCI, a statutory body regulating medical colleges, affiliation of new colleges and doctors' registration, decides on continuing with the recognition after inspecting the medical colleges and associated hospitals throughout the country in every five years.
The council had carried out an inspection of the medical colleges in the state last year and found them unsuitable for imparting medical education, following which it had recommended the central government to de-recognise them.
"The state has five government medical colleges – one each in Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur, Gwalior and Rewa – and the MCI have asked the central government to direct the colleges not to admit students for the 2007-08 academic session in case the shortcomings pointed out by it were not removed," informed an official of the state medical department.
The deficiencies pointed out by the medical council, he said, include a dearth of teaching staff, infrastructure, equipment, hostels and many other facilities.
MCI officials, who had inspected the five colleges in 2006, reportedly said that dearth of basic infrastructure in the colleges was not only affecting medical education in the state, but also the quality of doctors being churned out as per standards set by the council.
"But the looming threat of de-recognition has prompted the state's finance committee to loosen its purse strings to meet the infrastructure deficit in the medical colleges and hospitals affiliated to MCI," the medical department official said.
In April, the state government had sanctioned about Rs.436 million for the purchase of necessary equipment to overcome the shortcomings pointed out by the MCI. It had also sanctioned 3,403 posts of teaching and non-teaching staff to fill the vacant posts of professors and assistant professors, said the source.