The Hindu : New Delhi News : Hospital dodges inspection for 13 years

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 08, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Hospital dodges inspection for 13 years

By Bindu Shajan Perappadan

NEW DELHI, MARCH 7. The Medical Council of India (MCI) is finally losing patience on this one, with the country's only women's medical college, Lady Hardinge, thwarting its attempt to carry out inspections for the past 13 years.

The MCI is now at its wits end on how to make the college comply as they have asked for more time this year too when the Council wrote asking the college authorities to given them dates for an inspection.

The inspection, a routine drill that has to be followed every five years, is conducted to assess the teaching, training and other technical facilities in a medical college. The inspection was last conducted in Lady Hardinge Medical College in 1992. Since then, the college authorities have come up with one excuse or the other to defer the process.

"While the college authorities never say no, they always ask for an extension of six months each time we write to them. So for the last 13 years we have been giving them time to improve, without ever checking if they really have,'' said a MCI official.

The medical college, managed by the Central Government, after its last inspection was instructed to look into the deficiencies and improve within the stipulated five years given by MCI.

The Council had recommended that the college look into the teaching beds and staff shortage in departments including general medicine, paediatrics, psychiatry, skin, tuberculosis and chest. The medical college, according to the MCI, had a combined deficiency of 83 teaching beds and staff deficiency of over a dozen lectures and demonstrators.

The Council in its report also noted that the staff attached to the animal house should be on the pattern suggested by it and that medical students should be provided with adequate hostel facilities.

The Council also wrote that due to implementation of time-bound promotion of teachers there was an acute shortage of junior teachers. This, according to the MCI, could adversely affect the team working as well as patient care and suggested that the staffing pattern of facilities should be brought in line with the MCI recommendations.

Now, a decade and more after the shortcomings were brought to the notice of the college authorities, the Council complains that they aren't sure how much "actual improvement has taken place in the college and of course there is no way of checking it out''.

This year again, MCI wrote to the college principal and medical superintendent, for conducting the inspection in early March. "And this time too like other years, the college authorities wrote back stating that the students would be hosting their annual spring festival and later the Union Health and Family Welfare Minister would be visiting the college and so it would be inconvenient to have an inspection team. We have been getting this kind of response for many years now and are wondering why the college is resisting an inspection,'' said the MCI official.

Responding to the allegation, the Principal and Medical Superintendent, G. K. Sharma said: "We have been given assurance by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare that the shortage of staff will be resolved and we have asked for this to be done before the inspection take place, which is what is taking time.''

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