Mumbai: The state medical education department will soon add 1,100 more seats for Diplomate of National Board (DNB) courses in government-run and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)-run colleges to compensate for the loss of seats due to the closure of all courses run by the College of Physicians and Surgeons, sources said on Saturday.
They added that a proposal for the same will be brought soon to the state cabinet. National Board of Examinations awards DNB to the candidates who complete their post-graduate or postdoctoral medical education under it.
Lt General (retired) Dr Madhuri Kanitkar, vice-chancellor of Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, conducted a study and submitted her report on how DNB seats in the state can be increased after the CPS courses were derecognised.
After a detailed hearing of the report, the state medical education secretary Dr Ashwini Joshi on July 15 derecognised all CPS courses after finding several lacunae in it. Then, the CPS approached the Bombay high court, but their plea was rejected, after which they appeared for a hearing before Joshi.
Seven months ago, the state medical education department first wrote to the union health minister about severe infrastructural and faculty deficiencies and violations of the National Medical Commission (NMC) minimum standard requirement at institutions offering CPS courses.
Among the public hospitals, BMC’s peripheral hospital too had CPS courses. “Out of the 16 peripheral hospitals, four to five offered CPS courses, including diplomas in orthopaedics, gynaecology and obstetrics, ENT, ophthalmic medicine and surgery. We had started increasing DNB seats after the CPS admission was stopped. We plan to have more DNB seats in our hospitals,” a senior BMC health official said.
The Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) also visited 120 hospitals in the state, that were running CPS-affiliated courses last year for inspection. Out of the 120, 74 had refused inspection, and two institutions were non-operational. In the remaining 44 hospitals, MMC’s inspecting team found severe infrastructural and faculty deficiencies and violations of the NMC minimum standard requirement.
Based on the MMC report, Joshi in January and February, wrote two letters to the union health ministry on the state of affairs at CPS and why admissions to its courses should be stopped.
On March 14, the CPS received the first show-cause notice. The CPS representatives met Joshi but were asked for further clarifications and given a second hearing date on March 24. The CPS approached the Bombay high court challenging the show-cause notice but its petition was dismissed. Meanwhile, the state medical education department kept issuing show-cause notices.