College of Physicians and Surgeons courses likely to be shut down

State contemplating an increase of 1,000 seats in Diplomate National Board (DNB) courses. These are meant to compensate for the loss in seats should courses affiliated to the CPS be closed

Mumbai: While the state medical education department has reportedly almost arrived at a decision to stop courses run by the College of Physicians and Surgeons (CPS), it is also contemplating an increase of 1,000 seats in Diplomate National Board (DNB) courses. These are meant to compensate for the loss in seats should courses affiliated to the CPS be closed.

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The department has appointed a committee under Lt Gen (Dr) Madhuri Kanitkar, vice-chancellor of the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, to see how the seats can be increased. The committee, which also includes state public health director Dr Nitin Ambadekar, joint director of medical education Dr Ajay Chandanwale and assistant professor Dr Rakesh Waghmare, will look into the possibility of starting new DNB courses in government hospitals and colleges. It is expected to submit its report next week.

The GR issued by the medical education department on May 29 stated that some seats for DNB courses could be increased in the district hospitals. Some MD and MS seats can also be increased as per the recommendations of the National Ayurvidyan Commission. There is also scope to start DNB courses in government medical colleges, where more MD/MS courses cannot be started. All this can increase trained hands in the state.

The CPS, which is an autonomous examination body established in 1912, has been pulled up a lot lately by the medical education department for the anomalies in its courses and insufficient infrastructure in its affiliated colleges. In April, it approached the Bombay high court to stay the show cause notices issued to it by medical education secretary Dr Ashwini Joshi but was unsuccessful. The hearings in the CPS case are complete, and the medical education department will give its judgement in the coming week.

Sources in the state government said the medical education department had almost decided to wind up the CPS courses. There have been no admissions in the CPS-run courses in the last two years. The CPS runs specialisation courses and many of its courses are recognised by the Maharashtra Medical Council.

In May, CPS, which was facing the heat over its non-compliance of conditions for its post-graduate courses, got a shocker from the post-graduation medical education board of the National Medical Council, which recommended to the union ministry of health and welfare that three of CPS’s diploma courses—pathology and bacteriology, child health and gynaecology and obstetrics—be withdrawn.

In the line of fire for several years now for the anomalies in its courses, the CPS received its fourth showcase notice from the state medical education department in April. The notice sought to know why the CPS should be allowed to admit students for post-graduate courses after an inspection by the Maharashtra Medical Council last year found that two of its affiliated institutions were shut while there were anomalies in 45 institutions, and 73 institutions had refused inspection.

State medical education secretary Ashwini Joshi has written two letters this year to the union health secretary on the several anomalies in the colleges where courses run by the CPS are conducted. In the letters, Joshi stated that there are 1,028 seats offered by the CPS in the state. Apart from government and private medical colleges, these courses are also being run in the stand-alone hospitals without permission from the government.