Plan to ‘disempower’ medical college heads, experts livid

Samaan Lateef

Srinagar, January 23

Amidst rising Covid cases, the J&K administration has triggered a controversy after proposing to delegate a major share of powers of principals of medical colleges to government-appointed administrators. Experts say the proposal violates the guidelines of the National Medical Commission (NMC) and the University Grants Commission (UGC) wherein “principals are administrative, clinical and academic heads of the medical colleges”.

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Vivek Bhardwaj, Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Medical Education, on Friday called a meeting to discuss the proposal on assigning the duties and responsibilities to administrators, personal officers and administrative officers of medical colleges and subordinate departments.

Their decisions would be based on the administrative experience while patient care in hospitals needs medicos to decide and prioritise, says a professor of a medical college.

The Medical Faculty Association has urged Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha not to go ahead with the draft proposal. “We would have no objection if the arrangement were part of some national scheme applicable across the country. It is likely to adversely affect the recognition of the courses at all levels,” said MFA president Prof Sajjad Nazir of the surgery department of the GMC, Srinagar.

“The healthcare administration and management are expansive areas and must be discharged by trained accredited professionals. In fact, the creation of Indian Health Care Services is most desirable. That clinicians and academics will have an edge cannot be denied,” tweeted well-known Oncosurgeon Dr Sameer Kaul.

About proposal

Vivek Bhardwaj, Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Medical Education, recently held a meeting on assigning the responsibilities to administrators, personal officers and administrative officers of medical colleges and subordinate departments.

Exemption for pregnant, disabled employees

• The government has announced exemption for pregnant staff and those with disabilities from physical attendance in offices.
• J&K saw seven deaths and 6,253 new Covid cases in 24 hours, taking the death toll to 4,605 and the caseload to 3,97,202.