Punjab’s plan to start MBBS course at Mohali Medical College from 2020 hits roadblock

During inspection, Medical Council of India’s team finds many shortcomings, including poor infrastructure and equipment, failure to recruit faculty and to upgrade the existing civil hospital to 300 beds

The Punjab government’s plan to begin classes at Government Medical College, Mohali, from next year has hit a roadblock.

The Medical Council of India (MCI) has found several shortcomings during its latest inspection to grant permission to start the MBBS course with 100 seats from 2020-21.

The opening is likely to be delayed by a year, confirmed highly placed sources in the MCI. The report has been submitted to the Government of India.

The ₹300-crore project was sanctioned in 2012 under the centre-state partnership scheme of the Government of India with funding in the ratio of 60:40. The Punjab government finalised the site of the existing civil hospital in Phase 6, Mohali, to set up the college, which will eventually have 220 MBBS seats.

On November 15, a three-member team of the MCI conducted the inspection for nearly 10 hours.

In its report, the details of which were shared by a senior MCI official privy to the development, the team pointed to a number of shortcomings, including poor infrastructure and equipment, failure to recruit faculty and to upgrade the existing civil hospital to 300 beds, the last one being a basic requirement for setting up the medical college.

At present, the hospital has a bed strength of 170, which includes a 50-bed de-addiction centre located 10km away in Sector 66. In its report, the MCI team has reportedly stated that the 50 beds of the de-addiction centre cannot be included in this hospital as it located far from the site.

According to sources, the report also mentions that three departments — anatomy, biochemistry and physiology — are must to start the medical college, but not a single room for any of them has been constructed so far.

The engineering department told the team that the three departments will be constructed in the existing building of Punjab Health System Corporation (PHSC). The PHSC vacated the building just last week and it will take at least eight months to construct the departments.

Even the construction of hostels will take another eight months, said sources in the Punjab medical education and research department. After the inspection, OP Soni, minister of medical education and research, had said the construction work will be finished by March 2020.

The MCI team has reportedly even questioned the move to upgrade the civil hospital into a medical college instead of developing the project afresh over 9 acres of land that was allocated to the department at nearby Jhujhar Nagar. Even doctors at the civil hospital, who did not wish to be named, said patients have been suffering in its emergency wing for the past three months as the renovation work is going on at a slow pace.

Dr Avnish Kumar, director, research and medical education, Punjab, said: “It is just an initial report. The MCI will seek a compliance report in March.”

On delay in recruitments, he said the Punjab cabinet had not approved the pay scales, which now have got the green signal. “We are hopeful of finishing the work by this year-end. We will try not to delay the project,” he said.