Government Medical College Jammu is a classical example of appalling disparity between the sanctioned posts of various faculties and the actual number at work. This is despite clear instructions from the Medical Council of India that are obligatory for all recognized Government medical colleges in the country. Last year much pressure was exerted on the MCI to increase the number of seats for MBBS in the GMC and consequently it was raised from 100 to 150. When that was done, it was but natural that the number of faculties should also have been enhanced to meet the additional requirement of the students.
This is not the only malaise with which GMC is suffering. The glaring discrepancy in the GMC as well as the Super Specialty Hospital is that both institutions are running on adhocism, a word that is usually abhorred in the lexicon of medical history. We fail to understand why the Medical Health Department has become a victim or a prisoner of this much hated system of administration. Hindsight will show that from the highest post of Principal/Dean, GMC Jammu has not seen any confirmed Principal after superannuation of Dr Rajinder Singh. Thereafter all were opted as in-charge principal. The practice of enforcing adhocism is actually of the choosing of bureaucracy and the institution of Public Service Commission. MCI has highlighted this lacuna in GMC a number of times but it appears the concerned authorities area determined to disregard the rules and practices besides the instructions of the Medical Council of India. By not confirming the faculties in their posts and positions, the Department of Medical Health creates confusion and uncertainty among the faculties and this is detrimental to good atmosphere and health of the medical college. Nearly 80 faculty members of GMC, Jammu and Super-Specialty block have been placed on various posts of Assistant and Associate Professors and Professors on in-charge basis. It is worth mentioning that the validity of these Own Pay Grade (OPG) orders is only for 6 months and Administrative Department is supposed to conduct Departmental Promotion Committee confirmation through Public Service Commission every six months as per the laid down guidelines of PSC J&K, provided the attempt is made by the concerned Administrative Department. But when the concerned Administrative Department does not move the matters, everything gets paralyzed. When the MCI team inspected GMC last, it did raise the issue of faculties available and the additional ones sanctioned by the Government. But one is at wits end how the GMC managed to play the game of numbers and got things done. Perhaps it convinced the team that vacancies are there and have been referred to the PSC and that it was only a matter of weeks when the vacancies would be filled. The question is that this coming November GMC Jammu and GMC Srinagar shall be heading for final call from MCI in the form of final inspection with regard to availability of teaching faculty and infrastructure as per the gazette of India notified by MCI -Minimum standards requirement 2017, It is beyond one’s imagination that in next six months the Department will be able to fill the vacancies and regularize the faculties working on adhoc if we take the past record of filling vacancies into consideration. Comparing the expansion of GMC Jammu with the GMC Srinagar, we find that GMC Jammu got only 13 PG seats enhanced in comparison to 37 of GMC Srinagar. This was based on two factors i.e. availability of already PG seats and confirmed Professors as well as Associate Professors in various departments. This student and teacher ratio has numerically decided the sanction of seats in both the colleges. It will be noted that DPC confirmation of faculty of GMC Srinagar unconditionally of more than 90 faculty members, with availability of more number of Professors and Associate Professors in various disciplines, which surely helped the GMC Srinagar to get comparatively more seats in comparison to the GMC Jammu. Had the DPC of nearly 80 faculty members been done of faculty of GMC Jammu which is due for almost one and half years in most of the cases particularly on clinical side, the situation would have been little bit different favoring Post Graduate aspirants.
In any case this is a serious matter and affects the entire population of Jammu region. As such the Department of Health should devise methods and means of filling the vacant posts and regularizing adhoc appointments so that more damage is not cause to the people of Jammu region.
Follow our WhatsApp channel