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Note: This post is related to the previous post requesting support for the NCHRH bill that is likely to be proposed in the Indian Parliament this year. Again, I would greatly appreciate any publicity that you can give for this issue. Please link, reblog, tweet, digg, stumble, or share in all the other myriad ways of Web 2.0.

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The current issue of The Week (only available on newstands, the website shows last week’s issue) has an article by Gunjan Sharma on the Medical and Dental Councils of India. I urge everyone to read the article.

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Some excerpts and my opinions (in italics)…

Medical education in India is ailing. A diagnosis was done by a task force constituted by the Union health ministry following complaints of corruption against seven medical education regulators, including the Medical Council of India and the Dental Council of India. Its prescription has left the medical fraternity and the Prime Minister’s Office divided.

Questions they ask each other and even themselves: Are the regulators so bad that they be abolished?

Yes I think it would be better to abolish them and start afresh with new faces and new laws.

Won’t remedial steps help?

Not likely, as the people with the same old style of functioning will likely be still in charge.

And more importantly, is the newly recommended National Council for Human Resources in Health (NCHRH) an apt substitute?

It may not be apt. But anything would be better than the present dysfunctional system. It is worth a try. As the old adage goes, desperate times call for desperate measures.

The health ministry then announced the NCHRH, and put on its website the task force’s report and the draft bill to constitute the NCHRH. when it sent its recommendations to the PMO for a cabinet note of approval, the PMO rejected them, for want of wider consultations.

The news on the grapevine is that vested interests (read politicians and powerful private business houses that own and operate many of the country’s private medical educational institutions) are behind the rejection by the PMO.

The medical fraternity, however has a deep-rooted dislike of the councils, though there are some who feel the existing system could work with positive changes. They call the MCI and the DCI “dens of corruption”, which can do anything from recognising a college to giving it university status for a price.

I think “deep-rooted dislike” is putting it very mildly.

“Over the last 10 years, these bodies have become mere auctioneering institutes. Everyone knows that a huge amount of money is exchanged for recognising or extending seats in medical and dental colleges,” says Dr. C.R. Soman, former professor of the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College, who runs an NGO to fight corruption in the medical system.

Health and Medical Advancement Trust, Salem, has been lobbying for transparency in the councils. Its executive trustee George Paul says the only way to tackle corruption in medical education is to have a regulatory body with members having no conflict of interest with the medical institutions. Also, “the government should institute an independent vigilance mechanism to accept valid complaints against malpractices. the proposed appointment of a powerful ombudsman is a welcome first step,” he says.

I agree completely with George about the members having no conflict of interest. The grapevine says one of the prominent doctors involved in the NCHRH task force back pedalled because of vested interests. Typical Indian crab mentality that does not allow anyone to get ahead.

Curiously, officials in the health ministry are tight-lipped. Health Secretary Naresh Dayal (he retired on September 30), who headed the task force, declined to speak to THE WEEK on the issue. So too did Debasish Panda, joint secretary, who was a member of the task force.

According to Dr. Shetty, the root cause of corruption in medical education is a shortage of seats, and consequently, fewer doctors than required for the population and even fewer specialists.

Though there is truth in what Dr. Shetty says, I do not completely agree with him. Yes, there is a shortage of seats and there are fewer doctors than required. But corruption does not ensue from shortage. Corruption ensues from the ever growing number of filthy rich business men and some powerful politicians with ill-gotten wealth finding out that medical education is a lucrative business. And of course, having spineless people in the governing / regulatory bodies who bend over backwards to ease the way for the rich and the powerful to rape the system.

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