SCB teachers under fresh MCI scanner

BHUBANESWAR: Thrice in the past three years the Medical Council of India (MCI) has stonewalled efforts from SCB Medical College and Hospital (SCBMCH) to start a postdoctoral course in doctor of medicine in haematology as the council feels those in charge of teaching the subject does not hold a valid degree.
Repeated failure by the SCBMCH to get the MCI's approval has grabbed the state government's attention which has now sought a report from the hospital authorities on the issue.
Goswami Golam Debata, additional secretary, health department, wrote a letter to the government-run college on August 1, mentioning that the report was being sought on the basis of MCI's observations.
"The MCI has said the teachers were not competent to teach postdoctoral course in doctor of medicine (DM) in haematology," Debata said.
The issue was first highlighted by the MCI when the government-run college applied to open the super-speciality course in haematology in 2013-14.
The MCI pointed out that to be eligible to teach DM in haematology, a medical teacher should have completed DM in clinical haematology or should have two years of special training in clinical haematology after MD in medicine/pathology or paediatric.
The MCI said there was discrepancy in the training certificate issued by the college's dean and a May 1998 government order pertaining to the eligibility of the head of the college's haematology department because the person was never posted for training in clinical haematology.
Since the head of the department did not undergo training in clinical haematology, the certificate issued to him becomes invalid.
Subsequently the training certificates handed by him to two other faculty members should also be treated null and void as the head himself did not fulfil the necessary criteria, the MCI wrote back to the college each time it applied for the course.
SCBMCH principal Sidharth Das said the MCI had only observed that the faculty members' training doesn't meet statutory norms for starting DM in haematology course because none of the faculty members were DM in haematology or had completed two years of special training after obtaining their postgraduate degree. "It doesn't in no way reflect their competence to treat haematology patients," he added.
Das said the college has recently recruited another faculty member who has a DM in haematology and which would help it meet MCI norms to start the course soon.