Establishment of Medical University

Dr. Sanjay Kumar Bhasin
Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir announced establishment of Medical University in the state on 18th December that was immediately seconded by Health Minister of the state is not only a welcome step but need of the hour too. In view of fast expanding healthcare infrastructure both Government and private; the two universities of Jammu as well as Kashmir were facing bit difficult to cope up with work load of deciding curriculums as well as exams related issues.  If this announcement by the political dispensation comes true, J&K shall have distinction after Punjab, Haryana & Delhi of having its medical university. At present allover India there are 30 Deemed Medical Universities and 14 Full Medical Universities, 10 being state controlled. Establishment of Medical Universities is approved by Central government, State governments, UGC and the National Council for Human Resources (NCHR). They are called by different names at different places like Health Sciences University, Medical Sciences University or Health Management University.
New policies and announcements in a  democratic  set up especially welfare steps are always welcome but they need to be given practical shape for overall welfare of the masses. Governments of the day from time to time go on announcing different policies and schemes but work on them either do not start or if it get started by individual  effort it becomes so slow that completions crosses deadlines many a time. It happened with announcement of AIIMS for Jammu in 2004, it got converted to AIIMS like institution and ultimately we ended up with Super Specialty Hospital (SSH) that too a white sick elephant or a toothless tiger in view of severe shortage of functional manpower including specialty faculty. Medical University is need of the hour for further streamlining of the Health & Medical Education system in J&K for ultimate better healthcare delivery to the ailing population but any controversies related to its establishment must be avoided and a distant and clear vision should be adopted for fulfillment of our goal of establishing a medical university. Some very important components to be considered during establishment of the said university are:
Location: in view of demography of the state, the options of location available with the State Government are:
a) Full University Campus at either Jammu or Srinagar with Camp Office at either place.
b) Two separate Medical Universities, one each at Jammu and Srinagar.
Advantages of the second option are that it will take care of regional aspirations and AIIMS like agitation can be avoided. Hindrances in routine work shall be less and people shall not be bothered to travel across the tunnel from either side. The site of the university also needs to be chosen with a foresight and not the way people of Jammu chose present site of GMC that has become too crowded. I remember, when the land of present university was offered for establishment of GMC, people of Jammu city retaliated. Years later people felt their wrong decisions. If in early 1970s, the land of university could have been selected for GMC, even SSH and now searching for university land could not have been a problem. Another advantage of establishing two separate medical universities shall solve the problem of availability of faculty as external examiners from either side to conduct MBBS/Specialty and other exams. All the medical institutions in J&K and for that matter all over India are facing great problems in getting examiners for conducting exams. Because of faulty system of compensating examiners in terms of their stay arrangement, fee and travelling expenses, it is extremely difficult to get examiners from outside the state. Whatsoever examiners are coming from outside are on personal relations of the concerned HODs of various specialties. As per university statues, it is mandatory to call an external examiner from the other university. If we get two medical universities, this problem of external examiners shall be sorted out up to some extent.
Nomenclature: In order to avoid any conflict between different sections of the society to name rotaries, colleges, universities in the name of their community ideologues, as has been witnessed day in and day out, best nomenclatures shall be either Jammu University of Medical Sciences or Jammu University of Health Sciences. Similarly, Kashmir University of Medical Sciences or Kashmir University of Health Sciences. Recently, we have observed a large controversy in declaring holiday on the birth anniversary of Maharaja Hari Singh ji. Simple nomenclature shall avoid creating such controversies.
Domains: Universities take care of undergraduate and above courses and hence the Paramedical Institutions other than AMT/ANMT shall not come under the purview of the Medical University. It shall have to deal with only: (i) Faculty of Medical Sciences including Ayurveda & Homeopathy (ii) Faculty of Dental Sciences (iii) Faculty of Nursing Sciences and (iv) Faculty of Physiotherapy. In the vent it shall be catering almost 08 colleges and 50 odd AMT/ANMT institutions.
Expert Committee: The committee for establishment of university shall have members with highest substance with intellect and distant vision. The committee should include renowned professionals with administrative potential as well.  Clinicians of repute, medical administrators of repute, visionary bureaucrats, Principals of GMCs and senior faculty members from these colleges shall be the members of the Expert committee. It should also include senior persons from Jammu/Kashmir University for extending necessary guidelines by virtue of their experience of working in the university.
Advisory Committee: It should include (a) Vice-Chancellors of Jammu/Kashmir University (b) Vice-Chancellors from already established Medical universities in the neighboring states (c) Ex-Principal of GMCs (d) Senior Members from the teaching faculty shall be the part of advisory committee.
In view of political will, clear vision of the policy makers, enthusiasm and right approach of implementing agencies and proper expert advice from the experts in the field, I think establishing Medical Universities in J&K is not a difficult task. If established state of Jammu & Kashmir shall register its name amongst few states in India having medical university that shall in fact streamline the Health & Medical education system in the state in addition to generating jobs for unemployed youth of the state.
(The author is a columnist & senior faculty member in GMC Jammu)
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