Ghost faculty in medical colleges result of PM chasing headlines: Ramesh

The Congress on Monday took a dig at the Centre over the National Medical Commission's findings that a majority of medical colleges assessed in 2022-23 had 'ghost' faculty and senior residents, saying this is what happens when "the PM chases headlines and self-glory".

The NMC recently revealed its findings in a reply to the Associations of Emergency Physicians of India (AEPI) over its grievance regarding the exclusion of emergency medicine specialties as a requirement for setting up new medical colleges. The NMC also said none of the institutes met the requirement of 50 per cent attendance.

"This is exactly what happens when the PM chases headlines and self-glory momentarily. It is shocking that NONE of the 246 medical colleges sanctioned with great fanfare by the National Medical Commission had adequate faculty or residents and ALL failed to meet minimum 50% attendance requirement. This is revealed by the Commission itself," Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh wrote on ‘X’.

The NMC further said it found that none of the doctors visit the emergency department regularly "because there is no one in the emergency medicine department to interact with them other than the casualty medical officer".

"The posting in the emergency medicine department is supposed to be a break period for the students," the Under-Graduate Medical Education Board (UGMEB) of the NMC said.

In a recently notified regulation, the NMC excluded the requirement of an emergency department for setting up new medical colleges. Earlier in a 23 June draft, the emergency medicine department was among the 14 departments that new medical colleges approved for undergraduate admissions must have.