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Ethics? Why blame the doc, his seat cost him Rs 1 crore-plus

CHANDIGARH:For every investment, one expects a commensurate return. What would be the means of this “return” when a medical student between his MBBS and PG ends up spending upward of Rs 1 crore, with interest on this “investment” piling up for eight to 10 years before he can really start earning?

Ethics? Why blame the doc, his seat cost him  Rs 1 crore-plus

Illustration: Sandeep Joshi



Vishav Bharti

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 22

For every investment, one expects a commensurate return. What would be the means of this “return” when a medical student between his MBBS and PG ends up spending upward of Rs 1 crore, with interest on this “investment” piling up for eight to 10 years before he can really start earning? Therein may lie the seeds of the travesty called “medical malpractices” that anyone who has visited a private hospital would be painfully aware of.

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It is admission season, and nearly half the students vying to become doctors will spend around Rs 60-70 lakh (tuition plus other costs) to pay for an MBBS degree in Punjab (more in many other states). Every year, there are around 500 MBBS seats under the NRI/management quota in the state’s colleges alone. Post-graduation is often done in other states at astronomical prices.

While questions about the ethics of these doctors who have made such massive investments are obvious, experts feel it also points to a rotten medical education system as well as profession.

There are a total of 1,445 MBBS seats in Punjab’s 10 medical colleges — seven private and three government. Since the Medical Council of India didn’t allow Chintpurni Medical College, Pathankot, and Gian Sagar Medical College, Banur, to admit students this year, there are around 1,200 seats that are left for students to avail in the state’s medical colleges. Around 500 seats of this total fall under the NRI/management quota. These go out for hefty amounts — no doubt, on merit.

Going by the notification of the Medical Education and Research Department of Punjab, tuition fee for the five-year course under management quota has been fixed at Rs 40.29 lakh. (Adesh University, Bathinda, with 127 seats is an exception at Rs 67 lakh for the course). Food and living costs are extra. With private colleges allowed to fill 35 per cent seats under this quota, there are around 300 seats in this category this session. Similarly, under the NRI quota, which is 15 per cent of the total, each student has to pay US $1.10 lakh (Rs 70.84 lakh) as admission fee. There are around 150 NRI seats in Punjab’s colleges.

Experts take this phenomenon of “sale of MBBS seats” rather bitterly, as they feel ultimately society has to bear the greater cost of producing such doctors. With parents making such a massive investment for their wards’ education, “nobility” of the profession will have to take a backseat as they will have to recover the investment with interest and profit.

Prof Vinay Sakhuja, former Dean, PGI, Chandigarh, says: “Seeds of malpractices in the profession are sown by the government itself when it keeps this provision of ‘paid seats’. When one spends so much money, it is obviously with the intention of earning it back. And for such amounts, observing ethics will rarely work. Even regarding the standard of education, you are not giving the seats to the brightest students, but selling these to those who can purchase it like a commodity.”

Dr Pyare Lal Garg, Registrar, Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot, who has also served as joint director, medical education, in Punjab, says the last decade has been the worst in this regard in the state. “Till 2003, the management quota fee for an MBBS seat was Rs 4.5 lakh. The biggest sellout of medical education in Punjab was done in 2013-14, when they increased this fee from Rs 20 lakh to 40 lakh within seven months. This, when the Supreme Court has said fee can’t be increased before three years.” Dr Garg feels a student who “purchases a seat, believes his education has been powered by his parents’ money. That leaves him with very little sense of obligation towards society”.

Dr Amit Sengupta, National Convener, Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, says before 1990s, there were just 5 per cent of the total seats in the private sector. “Now these are 50 per cent. State governments have stopped investing in colleges. Instead, they are giving licences to private players. The result is money is an additional qualification required to become a doctor. Such students don’t see it as a fee, but an investment, making it a business proposition.”

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