Ironically, it was precisely to phase out the system of dispatching answer sheets to the residences of doctors, minimise malpractices as well as speed up the evaluation process that the university had introduced the central assessment scheme in the final year MBBS course.

Only half the 25-odd doctors assigned the Medicine and Gynaecology papers of 1,282 students from nine medical colleges in Mumbai showed up at the Grant Medical College at Byculla and LTMG at Sion in November last year, when the assessment was held.

University appointed co-ordinators actually had to call doctors and request them to come to the centres, one of the examinerstold Express Newsline. When even that failed to work, the university was left with no choice but to send the answer sheets to the doctors' residences.

``By the first day, it was clear that not many doctors would turn up. So, the co-ordinators phoned them at home and asked them to come to the centres,'' said the examiner, adding, ``In the confusion that followed, some papers were corrected in a hurry while others were assessed at leisure.'' The university's Pro Vice-Chancellor Dr Naresh Chandra, however, said assessment did not suffer. ``We sent the papers to the teachers' residences and got them corrected,'' he says.

Vice-Chancellor Dr Snehalata Deshmukh said some of the doctors who are assigned examinership specialise in fields which require them to attend on patients almost continuously; thus, they find little time to evaluate exam papers. Which is why assessment of papers like Medicine and Gynaecology took the fall as these are fields which require the doctors to remain present in theirhospitals, she said.

Added a senior doctor: ``Doctors are busy with their patients and take their own time to correct papers. They need to be sent several reminders before they finish their work.'' To negate this, central assessment was introduced. But, as another doctor put it, ``It is practically impossible for us to sit in one place from 10 am to 5 pm and not take care of our patients.''

Examiners are picked out of a list prepared by the Board Of Examination's panels, after which they are given a week's time to intimate the university about whether they accept the work or not. Despite having this option, several doctors accept examinership and then do not turn up ``as is usual human nature'', says a doctor. And even if the doctors choose to play hookey -- after they accept examinership -- there is little that the university can do as there is no provision for any kind of penalty, according to Dr Chandra. ``The only solution would be to make examinership compulsory,'' he added.