Don’t lower hiring standards for medical colleges: IMA

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has requested the Union Health Ministry to guarantee that only medical postgraduates are considered for appointment in medical colleges. It also proposed that academics with non-medical post-graduate degrees continue to teach in medical schools within the 15% restriction already set by the National Medical Commission (NMC).

In a letter to Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, IMA National President Sharad Agarwal and Honorary Secretary Anilkumar Nayak stated that the association “firmly believes that where thousands of postgraduate medical teachers are available in the paraclinical field, it is not advisable to compromise with the standard of medical education by allowing non-medical teachers, who have no knowledge of applied medicine and the undergraduate curriculum of MBBS, to teach them on this subject.”

“We appeal to the NMC and ministry to maintain high standards of medical education in order to produce the best doctors in our country and do not relax the standards set by the NMC,” read the letter dated July 19. “We request that you reject the appeal of non-medical graduates and accept only medical postgraduates as eligible candidates for appointment in medical colleges in order to maintain the quality of the CBME (competency-based medical education) syllabus.” The non-medical postgraduate faculties who continue to teach in medical colleges would be modified within the 15% limit already announced by the NMC,” it added.

Non-medical postgraduates in anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, microbiology, and pharmacology were appointed as faculties in medical colleges to a maximum of 30% of total faculty strength under the old Medical Council of India regulations on teacher eligibility and criteria, as there were not enough medical postgraduates in these departments. According to the letter, practical medicine is critical in these paraclinical disciplines to teach the necessity of disease diagnosis, treatment, and surgery. “Only MBBS graduates of medicine, after their post-graduation in the concerned subject, can teach the subject with applied medical importance in a comprehensive way,” according to the letter.