What's up doc? Well, almost everything...

What's up doc? Well, almost everything...
Manjiri Kalghatgi

There is yet another strike, yet another sad story of wannabe doctors seeking justice. This time, it is about the plight of medical students from Jammu camping outside the ministry of health in the Capital, demanding that the government absorb them in other medical colleges.

The college these students belong to is not recognised by the Medical Council of India (MCI). It is illegal for students to practice medicine in India if the college/ university that issues medical degrees to them is not recognised by the MCI. This effectively means that these students may never be able to complete their medical courses and start working. The issue is, without doubt, serious and the outcome will be crucial for the careers of these young boys and girls. But as many a saga involving private medical colleges, their recognition and derecognition, unfolds in various forms across the country, the core issue is never addressed, or even acknowledged.

It is difficult to believe that students are not aware that the private medical college that they seek and get admission into is not recognised by the MCI. It is like moving into a building with a shaky foundation and then demanding rehabilitation when the building collapses. A large number of such students come from families that can certainly afford the exorbitant "donations" demanded at the entrance level. In fact, many of them are children of doctors, bent on acquiring a degree in order to continue with the family tradition. This, with no consideration for the fact that a clinic/hospital is not exactly a grocery shop that can be inherited and managed with little thought for the intellectual ability and aptitude displayed by the heir.

As is the case with other professional courses, admissions to government owned medical colleges are governed by cut-throat competition. So, if a student misses the 95 plus percentage cut off point in Standard 12, the parent heads straight for a private college. Armed with the requisite wads of currency notes, both white and black, he nudges his ward into this doctor-producing machine. As for issues like MCI recognition, the parent is led into believing what he wants to believe -- that all will be well by the time the ward passes out of college, five years down the line. Another comforting factor is that a large number of private medical colleges are directly or indirectly linked to powerful politicians and they certainly know hoe to get things like recognition done. Everything seems okay, until someone rakes up the dirt and exposes the institution for what it is.

Education is an expensive business. More so medical education, which requires the infrastructure of not just an educational institution but a hospital as well. The fastest way to get a medical college running is to register it, name it after a respectable national leader, accept 100 students and start holding classes in some building or other. As for the practical experience that future doctors require, these institutions tie up with a municipal hospital in the vicinity (at least one that exists on paper) and send students there for their internship. Or, if the trust is flush with funds, it will construct an impressive college building, along with a swanky hospital, with the exact number of cots specified by the MCI. Some retired teachers from government medical colleges are then signed up as staff and made to visit the place a couple of times a week. Often, records are fudged, additional medical teachers are hired and even patients brought in specially for MCI inspections.

That's how start-ups function, one might say. After all, the nod of an MCI team member could make or mar the future of an institution and its students. But how can a doctor get trained, when patients and a full functioning hospital prove elusive? The MCI understands this and refuses recognition on several grounds. Then comes another strike from students of that institution and the story begins again...