Adilabad: The semi-autonomous status to the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Adilabad and the prevalent caste politics has led to a huge shortage of doctors and teaching faculty in the institution. Locals, however, feel that the conversion of the institute into a government medical college may be the only solution to such problems.
During an inspection, the executive committee of MCI found 22 deficiencies at RIMS. Therefore, it had not recommended the recognition of the MBBS degree granted by NTR University of Health Sciences, Vijayawada for students trained at RIMS. The medical institution was given one month’s time for rectification of the deficiencies.
The MCI found that there was nearly a 36 per cent shortage of faculty at RIMS which was a major concern.
A section of doctors, teaching faculty and top authorities of RIMS had lobbied for full autonomous status to the institute allegedly to protect their interests without bothering about the people of old Adilabad district. Adilabad had a pre-dominantly tribal population whose income levels were less and they could not afford to pay medical charges if it became autonomous.
If it turned autonomous, it had to generate funds on its own without charging the nominal fee (user fee) from patients for medical and health services. It also could not depend on state and central governments allocations.
The top authorities of RIMS were so adamant that they were not ready to display the number of doctors with their specialisation working at the hospital so that patients could know about the services available.
There were also strong allegations of misappropriation of funds by the in-charge Director K. Ashok of RIMS. He was also accused of misbehaving with the other doctors.
S. Rakesh of Adilabad said, “Even the medical treatment at RIMS is given to a patient based on his or her caste and also if the patient was recommended by any political leader.” This reflects the sorry state of affairs at RIMS.
The contractual doctors and teaching faculty were getting hiked salaries but the question remained un-answered whether they were delivering services as expected by the people.
Even some of the local doctors did not want these doctors to stay so that they could run their illegal show and control the institution.
The local political leaders of Congress and TRS were using the RIMS as a platform to get political advantage and score on their political opponents instead of fighting to set the institute right.
There were strong allegations that a group of doctors working at the RIMS were so rigid that they were deliberately stopping the entry of new doctors and super specialty doctors during recruitments by the Director of Medical Education (DME).
The medical college had also become a platform to show off community strength with recruitment of more numbers of doctors and other staff belonging to certain communities.
Caste politics has affected the credibility of RIMS which was already suffering ever since its establishment.
