JAMMU, Apr 10: The career of hundreds of students doing their MBBS course in the newly opened seven new Government Medical Colleges (GMCs) in the Union Territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir could land in jeopardy as none of these Medical Colleges has a qualified Medical Superintendent (MS) or a Deputy Medical Superintendent.
It may be noted that National Medical Council (NMC) has issued directions to the J&K Health Department that no MMBS Degree and also the GMCs will be recognised until the qualified Medical Superintendents (MS), Deputy Medical Superintendents and Assistant Medical Superintendents are appointed by way of creating posts of Hospital Administration
When Rising Kashmir contacted the Coordinator, new GMCs, Dr Yashpal Sharma, regarding the same, he confirmed that NMC has issued the directions that these Medical Colleges and the Degrees won’t be recognised until the posts of Medical Superintendents, Deputy Medical Superintendents and Assistant Medical Superintendents are created in the new GMCs and qualified people are appointed. .
What is surprising is the fact the Department of Hospital Administration has not been created in the five new Government Medical Colleges of J&K namely, GMC Kathua, GMC Rajouri, GMC Doda, GMC Baramulla and GMC Anantnag ever since they became functional.
These five GMCs were opened in the first phase. The two other Government Medical Colleges at Udhampur in Jammu region and Handwara in Kashmir region were opened in the second phase. Even these two new GMCs also have no qualified Medical Superintendent or Deputy Medical Superintendent.
Some experts said that technically, the colleges and also the Degrees can not be recognised until and unless they have a qualified Medical Superintendent, Deputy Medical Superintendent and Assistant Medical Superintendent in place.
“What will you say and report that how did you run the Medical Colleges when you don’t have a qualified hospital administration in place,” the experts said adding that this raises several technical questions that how the GMCs were run in absence of the hospital administration.
Sources said that the posts of Hospital administration have been created in the two GMCs i.e Udhampur and GMC Handwara opened in the second phase but these are yet to be fulfilled.
In this regard, Dr Yashpal said, “The posts have been created in the GMC Udhampur and GMC Handwara and referred to PSC”.
The five new Government Medical Colleges of J&K namely, GMC Kathua, GMC Rajouri, GMC Doda, GMC Baramullaand GMC Anantnag were sanctioned in February 2014 and the foundation stone was laid in 2016.
In 2020, the NMC gave permission to start MBBS course in 4 of these colleges except GMC Doda due to some technical reasons. However, in 2021, the NMC gave permission to GMC Doda to start MBBS course.
