The ghost faculty is referred to the faculty that is only the faculty in the name but does not stay activated for the betterment of studies of students. Thus, the NMC has issued new rules to improve quality medical education. The colleges who fail to meet the certain requirements set by NMC have to pay a penalty up to 1 crores. The faculty members need to have 75% attendance and cannot engage in private practices during the college hours. To improve the medical education system, the NMC has asked colleges to follow a minimum standard of requirements for postgraduate courses. The notice was issued by the PGMEB of NMC to control irregularities of medical colleges and hospitals.
NMC has said that the recent rules have been introduced to improve the quality of medical education. The NMC has noticed that various colleges lack infrastructure and other facilities required for postgraduate courses. The NMC will take actions against medical colleges who do not fulfill the necessary criteria. The PGMEB will check the medical colleges at regular intervals. The NMC has introduced a penalty of 1 crore for the medical colleges that fail to follow the rules.
NMC also has said this to reduce the burden of postgraduate students. The NMC said that the senior doctors appointed are mostly absent and the PG students have to run the hospitals in their absence that burden them a lot because of their studies. The senior doctors remain absent because they practice privately. The officer has said that the new rules will strengthen the quality of medical education in colleges. The NMC also has said that full time faculty cannot practice privately during college hours. 75% attendance is mandatory for the senior faculty. The NMC has said that the teachers are found absent from the class as they have to run their private clinics and just sign the attendance register.
NMC also has said that the 80% beds have to be occupied throughout the year. The private colleges were found to have less patients due to high fees and having patients is important for students as it will help them to learn and give them hands-on learning experience. It is important to students from private colleges as the patients are less due to high fees. The NMC has said that 15% of beds should be for ICU patients. The average OPD attendance needs not to be less than 60 in general medicine.
The colleges that offer programs for PG medical students must have five departments including biochemistry, pathology, microbiology, radio diagnosis and anesthesiology. The labs in biochemistry, pathology and microbiology are important for ug students of second and third year. Some of the colleges were founded with lack of necessary laboratory infrastructure and departments without which the medical education remains incomplete. Thus the new rules have been established.
According to NMC new rules, the minimum standard of requirement the colleges should follow the national building norms and local statutory regulation for hospitals including administration, registration, records storage, inpatient and outpatient, operating theaters, CSSD, ICU, radiology and laboratory services.
The colleges must get mandatory licensing approvals and all statutory requirements obtained from the appropriate administrative authorities like state government etc. the college must have one teaching room for each department with the capacity to accommodate an adequate number of students for clinical discussions. The room should have audio and visual facilities. The colleges must have in house laboratory and imaging facilities for training of PG medical students.
The colleges have to increase the faculty, infrastructure and staff in Radio diagnosis, Anesthesia, Pathology, Microbiology and Biochemistry with an increased number of beds in hospitals. The NMC also has asked colleges to increase faculty and infrastructure of a department if the workload is high. The departments must have adequate in house equipment and training facilities for curriculum requirements of PG students. Also, a digital library and seminar hall with high speed internet, wifi connected media rooms in each department and direct relay from in house operation theaters are important for students.