Dr Ketan Desai at MCI shows the way

With a distinction of being the world’s largest trained manpower in healthcare, medical education in India has significantly improved in the qualitative terms also. The credit for this goes to a large extent to the apex body of the medical education in the country, Medical Council of India. Ever since Dr Ketan Desai has been at the helm of the MCI as its president, the Council is also working to further standardize the curriculum of medical education which is not only expected to be catering to the national needs but also cater to the global needs.

Dr Ketan Desai, President, MCI has been repeatedly taking initiatives so that the Council incorporates the global needs in the ambit. All due to the excellence in performing the role of the medical education watchdog, India today has the distinction of being the single largest producer of trained health manpower in the entire Globe. With 299 medical colleges in operation as of now with annual intake capacity of approximately 33,000 for the M.B.B.S. Courses, in terms of the number it is the largest producer of the trained health manpower when interpolated against the facts that even the United States of America, has only 152 medical schools as on date.

This is only considering allopathic medicine. When we consider Ayurved and other systems, the number gets even larger. However, the respective governments never seem to have made it a priority sector. Medical education per-se has never been construed as a priority in any of the budget making exercises of either the Central or State Governments and therefore to that extent the annual budget of the financial year 2009-2010 does not make any exception.

It needs to be borne in mind that ultimately medical education is the platform from where the trained health manpower is expected to be generated. The efficacy and efficiency of this trained health manpower therefore is directly proportional to the standardized sustenance of medical education. If the necessary requirements of medical education in the context of ‘developmental grants’ are not met with, the desired standards would not be attainable. This will result in the compromised generation of the health manpower, which is suicidal. The Medical Council of India under Dr Ketan Desai can only pave the way; the onus of excellence in the medical education ultimately falls in the power corridors.

DEFAMING MCI TO MALIGN DR KETAN DESAI; VESTED INTERESTS CALLING THE SHOTS

It is ironic that while the Medical Council of India is working on the modalities to have a curriculum for medical education that caters to the growing needs of the nation, a section of media instigated by certain vested interests are targeting it for reasons more than one. It seems that MCI has become the latest media obsession and in the name of investigative journalism, mud slinging has become the norm. For instance, if we see some of the media reports on the MCI, it is found that the apex body of medical education is being criticized even for the follies of the respective state medical councils.

One wonders whether this is borne out of ignorance or whether certain vested interests are working overnight behind it. Had this blogger not been writing on the medical education for quite sometime now, it would have been difficult to get an answer to this. But some of the recent anonymous mails clearly suggest that there is a deep rooted conspiracy to malign the MCI. Some further investigation brings to the light that the character assassination is targeted more against the MCI President Dr Ketan Desai who has time and again refused to toe their line and entertain such vested interests into the realm of medical education.

Dr Ketan Desai has been clearly advocating the concern of the Medical Council of India that the curriculum for the various modern medicine courses needed to be updated in a periodic manner, so as to make them commensurate with immediate and long term requirements. In order to give an academic direction and fillip, ‘Academic Cell’ has been constituted in the MCI, which is primarily vested with the responsibility of catering to the academic requirements of medical education in the country.

Curriculum update is the one of the premier tasks, which is being dispensed, for which a ‘standing mechanism’ in the forms of 72 Boards of specialties with expert members included thereat has been constituted. This Board of specialties taking stock of the various developments updates the curriculum in the concerned specialties for the consideration of the authorities of Medical Council of India. The council has also defined the ‘unit of update’ which in case of the postgraduate studies is three years and for the undergraduate 5 years, which incidentally is the duration of the said courses.

It is ensured that the updated curriculum is affected in a prospective manner. Likewise, a continuous effort is made by the academic cell to evolve desired innovations in the domain of teaching, learning and evaluation process and also evolving quality measures to be inculcated in to the system, so as to make the model of medical education ‘competitive and sustainable’. The context worked out by the council is in the paradigm that the ‘national objectives’ for the health care delivery system are required to be set in and a commensurate national curriculum is to be evolved for the fulfillment of the said objectives. It is also envisaged that the curriculum is not only expected to be catering to the national needs but as India is required to generate trained manpower even for the global requirements, hence the global needs are also incorporated in the ambit.

Does anybody still have any questions on the functioning of the MCI or the integrity of Dr Ketan Desai? No wonder, in India many luminaries of the medical fraternity who could otherwise have served this nation got frustrated by this system and became self centered. Dr Desai has given a paradigm shift to the apex body of medical education and for this; he deserves the appreciation of one and all.

ENDS….

No MCI, No UGC; Minister wants to have his way

Strange are the ways of functioning in the power corridors, so it seems. Instead of curing the disease, its symptoms are treated more often than not. When the issue of the capitation fee in medical colleges erupted in the media, suddenly the powers-to-be wanted to be seen in the media with their own wish list. Not only an ambitious blue print for reforms in the higher education mooted out, it was conveniently leaked to the media as well. The moot point here is what was the need to have a super regulator in the first place.

This attempt to remote control the academic institutions is nothing but an anti thesis of democracy, where the jurisdiction of independent bodies is being curtailed. After all, democracy is the art of decentralization of the power and not to decentralize it. If there are reports of corruption in states, should it mean that the centre should take charge of the states as well? What is the guarantee that the proposed super regulatory authority will be corruption free?

The basic tenet of democracy and the conventional wisdom suggests that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. If there has not been a fool proof system in the admission procedure of medical colleges despite of so many regulatory bodies playing their role, how will the new super regulator do it without any check and balance mechanism.

Actually the whole business of getting into independent bodies is borne out of the desire to control the institutions. Not very long ago, the then Union Health Minister A Ramdoss tried his best to control the All India Institute of Medical Sciences by curtailing the wings of then AIIMS chief Dr Venugopal Rao. The move failed, thanks to the apex court intervention. And now is there another move to take control of the independent bodies, like the Medical Council of India, the University Grants Commission and the Bar Council of India. However, conventional wisdom would suggest that the centralization of power only adds to more corruption, but then probably wisdom has no place in the megalomaniac society.