Appoint permanent staff instead: Doctors on visiting faculty scheme

NEW DELHI: The recent decision to have private doctors serve as visiting faculty in public medical colleges has drawn flak from both parties.

According to The Times of India and other publications, this proposal was made earlier and received the Medical Council of India’s “in-principal" approval in June. But the Board of Governors (MCI-BOG) officially approved this decision recently.

The teaching faculty of government colleges have argued that this is the council’s way of masking the “ground reality” of staff shortage in the government medical schools.

Permanent and temporary

The teachers lament that most of the medical colleges including All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, Vardhman Mahavir Medical College, Lady Hardinge Medical College and Atal Behari Vajpayee Institute of Medical associated with Dr Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital, have been appointing teachers on contractual basis.

“Why are they appointing faculty as contractual faculty and not as regular faculty members?” asked Vijay Gurjar, assistant professor of geriatric medicine, AIIMS. “There is a probability that the visiting faculty will be appointed on contractual basis in place of regular faculty.”

Practising doctors not likely to join this effort either. “The problem is that teaching is a different ball game altogether,” said Anil Arora, a gastroenterologist at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital. “You have to be really committed. Your attention cannot be divided. If it is, your purpose will not be served.”

Salary and retention

Ravi Phulware, an assistant professor on contract at RML Hospital, pointed out that there is a “major difference” between the salary drawn by permanent employees and that offered to teachers on contract.

“I am teaching in RML and am a contractual faculty,” he said. “The government is not giving us permanent jobs because they have to spend a meagre amount on contractual employees,” says Phulware.

Contractual employees are not paid special allowances, pension and other benefits a permanent employee is entitled to. “A permanent faculty makes around Rs 1.8 lakh per months, plus other perks,” said Phulware. “The government is saving on that expense.”

Arora believes the issue is different – government employees are paid to little and so, retention is a problem. “You need to have a dedicated faculty,” he said. “So, it is better to jack up the salaries in the government sector for the faculty-members to stick around for. In fact, they are not trying to address the root cause of the problem.”

‘Not filling gaps’

Siddharth Ramji, senior advisor to MCI’s Board of Governors, said the proposal is only for the purpose of “knowledge sharing” and is just an “additional channel” for the medical colleges to bring in resources who will be over and above the existing requirement.

“This is not to fill the gaps, this is over and above the minimum requirement of the MCI”, said Ramji. “Essentially, this pathway has been opened because we realise that there were a lot of people with experience who are working in the private sector. Could we create some mechanism to top up [our resources] over and above the minimum requirements of the medical council?”

But teachers feel there is no need for such additional expenses on visiting faculty as they are regularly invited to share their experiences in conferences and workshops already.

“Why is there a need for experience sharing when these kinds of experience sharing having through conferences and workshops being held regularly in all the medical colleges. Those who are doing private practice can come and share their experiences during the workshops in any platform”, says Phulware.

According to The Times of India, the visiting faculty must be under 70 years old.

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