Acute staff shortage at SR medical college: Medical Council of India

Thiruvananthapuram: The ailing SR Medical College, Varkala, suffers from 64 percent staff shortage, according to a report submitted by the Medical Council of India (MCI) to the High Court.

An inspection carried out by the MCI following a High Court order found that the college did not have adequate infrastructure, clinical material and other requirements, said sources.

Based on a petition filed by the 2016 batch of students, the court, in its order on June 4, had asked the MCI to find out whether the college had improved its facilities and infrastructure.

The college, started in 2016, had admitted 100 students for the 2016-17 year following the conditional permission granted by the oversight committee appointed by the Supreme Court.  

However, it was barred from admitting students for the 2017-18 and 2018-19 academic years after the MCI found infrastructure shortage.

A section of students alleged that the hospital authorities had brought outsiders posing as patients during the MCI inspection.

They created a Facebook page named ‘Stand with students of SR Medical College’ and posted visuals of the alleged ‘fake patients’ and an an empty ward, which was crowded at the time of the inspection.

 Eleven second-year MBBS students were barred from writing supplementary university examinations.

The Kerala University of Health Science has decided not to publish the results of the students who wrote the second-year supplementary examinations in the college on the ground that they were not conducted properly.

 The university also decided not to make the college an examination centre in future.