'Just new medical colleges won't help, qualified teachers needed'

Even as the state government has decided to come up with three new medical colleges from the upcoming academic year and another in 2022 academicians said that merely increasing the number of colleges without having adequate teaching staff would be of no use They are of the opinion that students would continue to suffer due to the shortagelack of qualified teachers a problem that many colleges have been facingThe government plans to have three new medical colleges 100 MBBS seats in each from the academic year 202122 at Alibaug Sindhudurg and Satara followed by one in Osmanabad from the year 202223Raigad Guardian Minister Aditi Tatkare along with district officials go through the blueprint of the proposed medical college site outside the Alibaug civil hospitalEducation standardSpeaking to midday Dr Ketan Vagholkar professor of surgery at DY Patil Medical college said Having more medical colleges is the need of the hour but rushing into starting the institutes will seriously affect the standard of medical education Starting a new medical college is not just a mechanical process but a qualitybased oneDr Vagholkar added Stringent numeric faculty requirements as demanded by the apex registering authority in the past has led to the emergence of so called namesake faculty who have no interest in teaching and are devoid of professional and leadership qualities This has led to a demoralising effect on budding doctors and specialists Dynamic energetic and accomplished medical teachers are needed to improve the standard of medical education Another key requirement is that the professors should have aptitude for research and international experience This will enable us to develop our medical education systemDr Subhash Hira professor of Global Health at the University of WashingtonSeattlProfessor Emeritus Dr Vedprakash Mishra national head of the Academic Programme of Indian Programme UNESCO Chair in BioEthics Haifa and member of the International Committee for Bioethics for Asia Pacific Region said It is indeed laudable that the state government plans to have medical colleges at district headquarters which lack such facility However it needs to be borne in mind that medical colleges do not just mean infrastructure created out of brick and mortar It has to be a vibrant place of teaching learning inculcation of clinical skills and desired researchThe government ought to work out a definite plan for the purpose of having fulltime teachers who would meet the requirements As such the existing burden itself is tough to handle and there is hardly any feasibility of mitigation of the same in the near future Running and managing medical schools in a compromised manner end up in a generation of compromised manpower which instead of becoming a boon for the healthcare system ends up in being a peril for the same he concludedTeachers are the backboneDr Wiqar Shaikh professor of Medicine at Grant Medical College and Sir JJ Group of Hospitals said that the proposal to establish medical colleges in several districts of the state was a welcome move However these will be teaching institutions and therefore the teachers will have to be the backbone of these collegesMedical education in India faces severe shortage of teachers The country has 542 medical colleges of which 281 are government and 261 are private ones with a capacity of more than 80000 MBBS seats These colleges offer a variety of courses but do not have enough teachers As the number of medical colleges will increase the demand for teachers will go up and in turn create a shortage of faculty Often senior fulltime faculty of medical colleges join corporate hospitals or go abroad for lucrative assignments which leads to brain drain and aggravates the shortage of medical teachers India trails behind several countries including Brazil and China in terms of studentteacher ratio in the higher education segment a government report has revealed Also lack of meritorious teachers means that India lags behind in quality medical research and publications Dr Shaikh addedDr Subhash Hira professor of Global Health at the University of WashingtonSeattle USA and former director of AIDS Research amp Control Centre ARCON at Grant Medical College Mumbai said Medical education and healthcare was initially regulated by Indian Medical Services IMS that was equivalent of the Indian Civil Services during the British Raj Postindependence the IMS was gradually dismantled and these functions were handled by the Indian Administrative Services IAS The IMS established in the 1970s formulated the regulations for medical education including the curriculum teaching faculty and the design of medical colleges Now a gamechanging move has happened with the establishment of the National Medical Commission NMC that will modernise medical education and standards of healthcare in India I am glad to hear that Alibaug in Raigad district is likely to be the first among the six districts to have a medical college with assistance from NMCIn the current situation it is important for governments and institutions to invest in quality medical education services and medical research A lot more needs to be done by NMC to streamline tuition fees charged by public and private sector institutions service rulesremunerationshealth insurancepersonal barrier protection etc Dr Hira concludedThe solutionDr Shaikh said the appointment of honorary medical teachers could be a solution The socalled honorary system was created because of a shortage of fulltime medical teachers Those teachers were supposed to work for a few hours in medical colleges every day and had both patientcare and teaching duties However honorary teachers were paid only a stipend and not a salary current honorarium in medical colleges is Rs1500 per month and were permitted private practice outside of their workKeep scrolling to read more newsCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest news