MCI Stop post-graduate courses at Adesh Institute

Points out deficiencies at the institute during an inspection; says compliance report not satisfactory

Bharat Khanna

Tribune News Service

Adesh Institute of Medical Science and Research (AIMSR) is yet to receive the green signal from the Medical Council of India (MCI) to start four new post-graduate (PG) courses. The MCI nod was not forthcoming as it found a number of deficiencies in the institute during an inspection conducted in September 2015. The Adesh compliance report submitted in December 2015 had failed to satisfy the MCI, which has recently uploaded the report on its website. Adesh Institute had earlier sought permission to start four new PG courses in the college, including MS (ENT), MD (Anaesthesia), MD (Radio-diagnosis) and MS (Orthopaedics). The MCI maintained that Adesh Institute had failed to give a satisfactory reply on certain issues— as to how within a short span of time, it had managed to cover all its deficiencies, between the period of inspection and compliance. The MCI, in its report on the ENT department, had decided to recommend to the Central government that it should disapprove of the plan to start the MS (ENT) course at Adesh Institute, Bathinda. It mentioned that compliance is not satisfactory as the institute did not provide any data to show the increase in bed occupancy which was only 10 per cent in the earlier report. The MCI also said that its query regarding regarding two assistant professors, not knowing who is the head of the ENT department, was not answered satisfactorily. Besides pointing out deficiencies in the assessment report, the MCI added that the PG unit should have 30 beds. But in its compliance report, it stated that the ‘ENT ward has 15 beds’ which is not correct. The MCI had also decided to recommend to the Central Government to disapprove of the scheme for starting the MD (Anaesthesia) course at Adesh Medical College, under section 10A of the IMC Act, 1956 for the academic year 2016-17 because it found (a) no patient as per the operation theatre list was available in the wards. All names in the OT list seemed to be bogus and fraudulent documents were made; (b) on cross- checking, all histopathology samples were found to be bogus as no specimen was available; (c) also on cross-checking, it was found that no such patient was admitted to the ward of the blood bank. Similarly, the MCI gave its report on starting the MD course in radio-diagnosis, voicing its disapproval as it found (a) DSA not available and deficiency remains; (b) no data had been provided to substantiate the claim that adequate workload is available; (c) other deficiencies existed as pointed out in the assessment report. Regarding the MS (Orthopaedics) course, the MCI found that two units of blood were given to those patients who were not available at all and the institute also failed to provide data to show how the OPD has increased and how bed occupancy has increased from 15 per cent as shown in the compliance report submitted by the institute in a reply to the inspection done in September last year. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a professor said, “If deficiencies are found in the ENT and other departments for PG courses, then how are these departments teaching the MBBS students who are learning in the absence of faculty, patients and other necessities mandatory for a medical college under the MCI guidelines.” Chairman, monitoring committee, MCI, Dr Raj Bahadur, who is also the vice-chancellor of Baba Farid University of Health Science, Faridkot, however, refused to comment and said the matter does not come under its purview.  Dr Baldev Singh Aulakh, a member of the executive committee of the MCI said, “The report is not in my knowledge.” It is noteworthy that besides 150 MBBS seats, there are three seats for post-graduation in gynaecology, two PG seats for surgery, 3 seats for community medicine, 4 seats for microbiology and 3 seats for pathology in Adesh University. The Tribune had earlier highlighted that on campus verification, it was found that besides the assistant and associate professors, the ‘senior residents’ (SR) too are dummies, thus playing with the future of the students. Most senior residents, who are officially bound to stay on the campus to supervise emergency patient care, in particular, are not available on the ground. Certain members shown in the faculty list were engaged only in conducting exams in the capacity of ‘Internal Examiner’ at Adesh Institute.  For example, Dr Ajit Singh Khurana, who actually owns and runs a clinic in Ludhiana but has been shown to have conducted the internal exams in January this year. Even Dr GPI Singh, who served as the principal from 2009-12, now Vice-Chancellor of Adesh University, was summoned on January 19 this year by the Medical Council of India (MCI) for a second hearing in a case of dummy faculty in which he, then as the principal, had allegedly signed and verified the fake documents of a ghost faculty member, Dr Muktanjali Arya, and had shown her working as ‘full-time’ in Adesh during the MCI’s final Inspection in 2011.  An inquiry was initiated against Adesh by the vigilance wing and ethics committee of the MCI regarding this specific complaint over the submission of fake documents by Dr Muktanjli Arya, former professor of microbiology department in this college, who was later promoted as professor from the post of assistant professor in seven years, despite the fact that she never visited the college and had worked full time at the Apollo Hospital in Ludhiana.