Appeal to ease conditions in MEDICAL COLLEGES

TT, Calcutta, Oct. 28: The Bengal government will request the Centre to relax conditions on faculties, infrastructure and land and raise the retirement age of teachers so that the state can set up five medical colleges.

"We will request the Centre and the Medical Council of India (MCI) to relax some of the norms they adhere to while giving permission for medical colleges," home secretary Moloy De said after a meeting with chief minister Mamata Banerjee at Nabanna this evening. Health secretary R.S. Shukla was also present at the meeting.

The state government plans to set up medical colleges in Cooch Behar, Raiganj (North Dinajpur), Rampurhat (Birbhum), Purulia and Diamond Harbour.

"In all these areas, we have a district hospital and a super-speciality hospital. We want to set up medical colleges using the infrastructure of these hospitals," the home secretary said. The government wants to use the built-up area of each set of district and super-facility hospitals, which are located on the same campus, to set up a medical college.

Health department sources said the government wanted to set up the medical colleges as several of the super-speciality hospitals, built in 2011, had not taken off because of lack of doctors, nurses and technicians.

"Five such hospitals are in a pathetic condition. They are located where the medical colleges will be set up," a source said.

Officials said no specialist doctor was ready to work in the super-speciality hospitals in these five places despite incentives announced in the past few months.

"Specialists are usually posted in medical colleges and they are not transferred to hospitals where teaching facilities are not available. The government wants to send some specialists to these super-speciality hospitals. Until medical colleges are set up as part of a common unit along with the super-speciality and district hospitals, the plan will not succeed," an official said.

The health department sources said it would be tough to get permission for the medical colleges as they did not meet most of the MCI criteria for a 100-seat facility.

"A 100-seat medical college has to have at least 70 teachers and 21 departments. The state already has a shortage of teachers and that's why the retirement age was raised to 65 years from 62 a few years ago," the superintendent of a medical college said.

The sources said the state government planned to deal with the problem in two ways - by further raising the retirement age of medical teachers and requesting the MCI to relax some of the criteria.

"But both are tough. Many teachers could move court if the retirement age is raised further as they are frustrated after working for so many years. It will also be difficult to convince the MCI to relax its norms," a medical college professor said.

A source said the government would find it difficult to meet the land criterion.

"A new medical college should have at least 25 acres of land. The condition can be relaxed for colleges that will come up in urban areas with a minimum population of 25 lakh. The hospital campuses where the medical colleges have been planned neither have the required land nor are located in urban areas with a population of more than 25 lakh," a source said, adding that the campuses had a maximum of 10-12 acres each.

There isn't enough space on the campuses for other criteria such as multiple laboratories, at least three lecture halls with a seating capacity of 250 each and a three-storey 800sqm auditorium.

The state does not have the funds either to build such infrastructure, the sources said.

"Setting up the infrastructure would require crores of rupees. I don't think the state has the financial power to spend so much. The MCI never entertains requests for relaxation of infrastructure norms as it affects the quality of teaching," an official said.