Analysis: Who’s to be blamed for the mess in Fathima Institute of Medical Sciences?

The starry-eyed dreams of 100 young medicos came crashing when the Medical Council of India (MCI) decided to de-recognise the MBBS admissions for the entire 2016-17 batch in Fathima Institute of Medical Sciences, Kadapa.

These medicos from Andhra Pradesh created a scene in Delhi when they threatened to commit suicide after the MCI took the harsh decision against the private medical college for failing to meet education standards at its Executive Committee meet held on 23d May, 2017 in New Delhi but who is to be blamed for this mess?

Is it the over-ambitious college management or the MCI’s lethargic assessment system or the poor decision making skills of the medicos and their parents?

Well, minimum medical standards are required to be met by all medical colleges in the country as set by MCI so that those passing out have enough skills and training to treat patients.

But it is foolhardy to expect MCI’s assessment system to deliver its verdict on formal recognition of a course run by medical college  – the final step that every medical college aims to achieve – as soon as one gets Letter of permission (LoP) to start a new medical college.


Where MCI went wrong?

Of the three stakeholders – the MCI, college management and the parents/medicos - the role of MCI assumes more importance as timely action by the former can prevent such private medical colleges from setting up shops in the first place.

In the case of Fathima Institute of Medical Sciences, Kadapa, the MCI’s inspection team took very long time to act on the findings of its compliance verification assessment reports dated 27th Jan., 2016, 12th September, 6th May 2015 & 9th July, 2015 besides an assessment report dated 26th & 27th February, 2015.

However, it was only on 23rd May, 2017 the MCI’s Executive Committee formally took a decision to de-recognise the 2016-17 batch MBBS medicos. What took it this long is anybody’s guess but the damage was already done. Had it acted earlier, maybe the medicos would have chosen another private medical college for admissions.


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The dubious role of the college management

Private medical college education had turned out to be a lucrative business proposition for mainly for many politicians-turned educational entrepreneurs in the country as both management and NRI quota seats fetched them huge sums of unaccounted money.

The reason is the craze for medical profession due to fewer number of government medical colleges in the country.

Not surprisingly, we see too many new private medical colleges springing up everywhere but medicos learn very soon that the journey from a Letter of Permission (LoP) to formal recognition of their medical course by the MCI is an uphill task for a private college management, often ruining the careers of medicos just like what Fathima Institute of Medical Sciences did.

In 2015, the High Court of Hyderabad pulled up the management of Fathima Institute of Medical Sciences for admitting students to MBBS first year in 2015-16 without obtaining permission from the Medical Council of India (MCI) and directed the management to immediately refund the entire fee collected from the students. (Read the full report in Times of India here).

If that was not enough, Fathima Institute of Medical Sciences tried all tricks to hoodwink MCI’s assessment team by making  healthy children stay in paediatric wards or making case records of different wards are made by one person (they found the handwriting similar in all case records).

During their inspection on 27 January, 2016, the MCI’s team even found many patients in OPD had similar minor complaints for which patients generally do not seek medical advice besides finding orthopaedics patients as young as 20-25 years admitted for treating headache!

For more shocking goof-ups and deficiencies in Fathima Institute of Medical Sciences, please check the list of anomalies given below.

Click to enlarge

Did the parents err?

The parents too need to introspect and take their share of the blame as it becomes clear that they do not often cross-check credentials of private medical college properly.

Merely being content with booking a management quota or NRI quota seat by paying sky-high sums of unaccounted money do not guarantee one to become a doctor in the long run.

This is because such private colleges can only produce certificates but cannot provide enough clinical experience to medicos for learning.

I wonder why parents of 2016-17 batch medicos still choose the college when media already reported how the management of Fathima Institute of Medical Sciences was pulled up by the High Court of Hyderabad for admitting students to MBBS first year in 2015-16 without obtaining permission from the Medical Council of India (MCI).

Even before buying a particular branded smartphone from a shop, people tend to check its specifications on the internet and how it is comparatively better than other brands but why the same diligence is not shown when they select a private medical college for their son or daughter is not clear.

However, Dr G Srinivas, adviser, Telangana Junior Doctors’ Association (TJUDA) prefers to give a clean chit to parents saying that they cannot be held guilty as it’s the college managements and brokers, who mislead them.

“They (the parents) are not in a position to understand what all deficiencies are there in a private medical college. The onus lies on college management to ensure that the medicos have a smooth education with proper infrastructure and faculty,” he said.

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