Doctor writes to MCI on staff crunch, gets notice for it
A letter that was allegedly written by a doctor working in the Srinagar Medical College to the MCI has irked the college authorities.
In the letter, the doctor- who is a faculty member of the college urged the MCI to cancel the college’s affiliation until the conditions improve.
But instead of taking any positive measures to improve the conditions, the medical college authorities, when they came to know about the letter issued a show-cause notice to the doctor. They termed the incident a case of indiscipline. “I have served a show-cause notice on the person. The matter is still being looked into,” said Prof CMS Rawat, the Principal of the medical college.
It’s been said that the MCI informed the medical college regarding the letter. Apparently, they questioned them on the deployment of the faculty.
Since its inception, the medical college has frequently faced problems of both lack of facilities for patients and a shortage of faculty members for the students. For instance, it’s said that the college lacks even a single faculty member in the radiology department. Such shortages usually invite stern action from the MCI.
And it’s not just the radiology department that’s lacking in staff. The department of surgery as well as the department of medicine face staff crunch. In the paediatric and gynaecology departments the shortage is by 40 percent and 10 percent respectively. This level of depletion obviously affects the quality of education as well as the services the hospital provide its patients.
In fact, the quality of care is affected so much that many patients now prefer getting treated at the Combined Medical Institute or going to Dehradun. Prof Rawat accepts the matter of staff shortage at the medical college. However, he says the college has been sending regularly status reports of the faculty to the authorities.
“The reports are regularly sent to the Governor and the MCI so there is nothing to hide. We do have shortage of faculty and this happens due to the resignation by members. The Department of Radiology head had tendered resignation. As of now, we have a technician who is taking care of the X-ray and CT Scan. Everyday 200 X-rays and 5-10 CT scans are carried,” he said.