Med frat welcomes exam transparency but staff crunch a hurdle for long-term change
Times of India | 19 January 2025
123 Kolkata: The incident of a postgraduate trainee's rape and murder at RG Kar has prompted an overhaul of the medical education and examination system in the state. Doctors in state-run hospitals have hailed the reforms made by the govt to improve the health of medical education and maintain transparency in the process of conducting examinations. But they have called for the attention of the state to some areas for further upliftment of medical education in the state.
Doctors and professors at medical colleges have indicated that "inequitable distribution of manpower" may hinder implementation of some measures.
In the last five months since Aug 9, state health department took a slew of measures to improve medical education. These measures include installation of CCTVs and infrastructure upgrades on medical college campuses, transforming the examination system by eliminating "corrupt practices" that prevailed in the past, monitoring duty hours of professors at govt facilities and changing rules for their private practice.
According to the new rules, govt doctors must be within a 20 km radius of the hospitals they are posted at and they must report to the facility within 24 hours if called for an emergency.
"For private practice, teaching doctors are now supposed to apply for an NOC to the director of medical education, while non-teaching doctors will have to apply with director of health services. If any professor or doctor flouts the rule, the person will be under scrutiny. On Feb 24, CM Mamata Banerjee will meet around 2,000 doctors at a city auditorium under the banner of the grievance redress committee," said an official.
The official also pointed out, "So far, we don't have a director of medical education, while the special secretary of medical education has been on extension for two years. The state needs to look into this matter."
Recently, the health dept issued a guideline for teaching and patient care services at medical colleges. Now, state medical colleges have 631 professors out of 924 sanctioned posts, 776 associate professors out of 1,200 sanctioned posts, 1,311 assistant professors out of 1,689 sanctioned posts and 1,062 demonstrators/tutors of 2,044 sanctioned posts.
A senior official conceded that the peripheral medical colleges are running under a shortage of faculty members and that the implementation of the new circular may present challenges due to the unequal number of faculties at the medical colleges in districts compared with the strength of the same at SSKM Hospital, RG Kar Hospital, Medical College Kolkata, Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital, and NRS Medical College and Hospital.
During RG Kar protests, doctors questioned various aspects of the health administration system, with some of the main grievances being the irregularities, lack of transparency and corruption in the education system. Following an instruction from the CM, a six-member committee was formed by the health university to review the exam system.
In Dec, about 1,450 students appeared for MS/MD/diploma examinations that were conducted in keeping with the SOPs by the West Bengal University of Health Sciences (WBUHS) for govt-run medical colleges. In Oct, the WBUHS formed a six-member panel to review the medical examination system in the state.