Act or face seats cut, MCI tells MKCG

BERHAMPUR: MKCG Medical College and Hospital (MCH) may be at the receiving end if it does not conform to Medical Council of India (MCI) guidelines. It is southern Orissa’s premier hospital catering to people of 10 districts and a sizeable population from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.During its last visit in April, the MCI evaluation team observed that MCH lacks clinical infrastructure and other patient amenities following which, it threatened to  cut down the number of undergraduate seats by 43 from the existing 150 seats. The college, established in 1962, had initial approval for 107 seats as per the infrastructure facilities existing at that time. Later in 2007, the seats were increased to 150. As per the MCI letter to the State Government, the college lacks infrastructure on many counts. It does not have at least 15 per cent resident doctors, seven per cent faculties, the  paediatric ward has no basic facilities, absence of mobile X-ray and MRI equipments and blood bank among other things. Sources said the MCI had said that if the deficiencies are not fulfilled, they would reduce the number of undergraduate seats. The premier regulatory body had asked the State Government to fulfil the deficiencies by June 30 failing which it would cut down the MBBS seats. On the other hand, the State Government recently decided to enhance 100 seats each in all the three medical colleges in the State, including MKCG MCH.A team from the Director of Medical Education and Training (DMET) visited the hospital on Tuesday and interacted with heads of departments of the hospital.The team is scheduled to submit a report on the available infrastructure in the hospital for enhancement of the seats.