Nellore: Shortage of professors, associate professors and other staff members, including nurses, besides lack of equipment for special investigations are some of the major reasons for the Medical Council of India to decline permission for 150 seats to AC Subba Reddy Government Medical College for the next academic year.
Going by the response of college officials, they seemed to have been expecting this development. The MCI mentioned 25 shortcomings in the college during inspection and announced its decision to cancel 150 seats on Monday. According to sources in the college, the MCI team took it seriously when they found 25 professor posts and 45 assistant professor posts lying vacant.
The other issues that displeased the MCI include poor outpatient turnout, inpatient admissions, absence of technicians to carry out biopsy culture test, short of beds and nurses in district headquarters hospital attached to the medical college. This is in addition to defects in CT scan, X-ray machine, low investigation in micro-biology and pathology, among others. “Such deficiencies are common in both government and private colleges and the MCI team could have been convinced,” a senior faculty member in the college said.
Referring to the recent visit of health minister Dr. Kameneni Srinivas to the college, he said the minister, to overcome the shortage of teaching staff, had stated that he would transfer spouses of teaching staff working in the medical college to Nellore, if they were doctors. Moreover, a list of those eligible for promotion from associate professor post to professor was also ready.
When contacted, urban development minister P. Narayana said the recruitment process was over to hire 160 nurses out of 243 nurse vacant posts and steps were on to hire professors and associate professors, too, on a war footing.
He said they would invite the MCI once again for inspection after addressing all the drawbacks. College principal G. Ravi Prabhu said most of the issues raised by MCI pertained to their hospital and those would be settled once the new building is opened in the first quarter of next year. He expressed confidence in obtaining MCI permission for allotted seats before the next academic year.
