February 25, 2017 – Source: The Hindu The coffee is bad and the desserts are drier than you’d expect, but the Amer Bakery Hut is nonetheless one of Bhopal’s popular haunts. Sudhir Singh (name changed) has strategically taken a table at the far end that faces the door opening to the kitchen. No one is likely to spot him there, and he’s not even from Bhopal, but Singh is fidgety, looking around every few minutes to check on other patrons before leaning forward to speak in hushed tones. A professor at a medical college affiliated to a Raipur university, Singh was in town in time for an inspection by the Medical Council of India (MCI), the regulatory body for medical education in India. On the MCI team’s inspection list were the RKDF Medical College Hospital and Research Centre, and the Advanced Institute of Medical Science and Research Centre which is on the outskirts of Bhopal. Both have been debarred. Other Related Topics निशुल्क सलाह एवं जानकारी के लिए यहाँ रजिस्टर करें (Click Here) More Details About MBBS in India (New), Know About Medical Colleges in India, NEET CBSE 2017, New Rules & Important Articles More Details About MBBS Abroad (New), Know About Various Countries, How to Select Best Option, Admission Process, Total Cost & Other Details More Details About MBBS in China (New), Best Universities, Lowest Package, Best Infrastructure, 5 Year’s Course More Details About MBBS from Bangladesh (New), Know Why Bangladesh is Best Choice for Indian Students, If they are eligible, Lowest Package, 5 Year’s Course The night before this January 11 meeting at the cafe, Singh had called saying “ghost professors”, a euphemism for academics who materialise at inspections conducted by the MCI for money, had checked into the Rajhans hotel. “Shehar mein sabko pata hai inspection week chal raha hai (Everyone in the city knows it’s inspection week),” he said by way of explaining him being so guarded. After all, the Raipur professor claims to have been among those approached to pose as Advanced Institute faculty when the MCI team came calling. Every medical college is associated with a ‘teaching hospital’ — where patients are admitted and students learn while treating them. A medical college must pass a benchmark in terms of infrastructure, faculty strength and patient inflow at the hospital to be recognised by the MCI, upon which it admits a prescribed number of students. The Advanced Institute had sought recognition to enrol 150 students and start a teaching hospital. On January 13, 2017, a damning report on ‘ghost’ doctors, fake patients, life-saving equipment on loan by dubious vendors in 32 medical colleges across India, authored by the MCI, was submitted to the Health Ministry. The report, which runs into 215 pages, blows the lid off a well-oiled operation which kicks in almost as soon as an entrepreneur dreams of opening a private medical college. The two Bhopal colleges figure among the blacklisted 32. The modus operandi: On January 4 and 5, four inspectors were in Bhopal. They visited Advanced Institute on those two days. News travels fast in the Madhya Pradesh capital. Days ahead of the inspections, the Advanced Institute administration sent out buses to round up nearby villagers from Vidisha and Betul, saying they would conduct a medical camp, claims Singh. “Once admitted, these people were passed off as genuine patients to meet bed occupancy standards.” The villagers bussed in were promised free food and transport during the medical camp. “They were stuck in the hospital till the MCI team visited (on January 4-5) and got restless as none of them had any serious ailments,” adds Singh. The inspectors recorded this exercise in great detail for the Health Ministry’s benefit: “Out of 25.66% indoor patients, many patients did not appear genuine. It seems that some workers/staff members without any medical illness were lying on the beds. No personal belongings, attendant, or medicines were there… (page 70 of the MCI inspection report).” However, Shailendra Bhadoriya, a businessman who owns the daily National Duniya and is the man behind Advanced Institute, says: “It is for the doctors to decide which patient is sick or healthy. That’s not the job of MCI inspectors.” The professor’s account, over coffee, only corroborates what the Health Ministry and court documents have meticulously recorded over the years — that vendors stage-manage medical college inspections in India, ‘ghost’ professors pass off as faculty, and fake patients are rounded up ahead of an inspection. Over the years, a cottage industry has thrived with a cast of characters that includes vendors, academics, patients, promoters, and the MCI which for decades had turned a blind eye to the practice. Enter the entrepreneur: Last year, Bhadoriya decided to set up the Advanced Institute spread across 25 acres in Bhopal’s Kolar Road area. Around the same time, the Supreme Court, in May 2016, appointed a committee under former Chief Justice Rajendra Mal Lodha with the mandate to oversee the functioning of the scam-tainted MCI. This year, the committee (and not MCI) was responsible for recognising medical colleges in India. The MCI had been in the eye of the storm for its failure to rein in malpractices in medical education and for allowing private hospitals and medical colleges flourish under political patronage. The former chief of MCI, Ketan Desai, is under investigation for corruption and criminal conspiracy in a 2010 case for allegedly taking a bribe of ₹20 million from a medical college in exchange for an MCI nod, allowing the college to add more students. The permission Bhadoriya’s college received — in August 2016 — from the Lodha committee to admit students was conditional on a second physical inspection. Earlier this month, newspapers in Bhopal reported that a part of Bhadoriya’s college had been attached by the Union Bank of India for defaulting on a ₹39 lakh payment. Just before this, on January 24, 2017, all of Bhadoriya’s 150 first-year students went on strike against an abrupt fee hike. The fee, which had been … Read more