Mass transfer of doctors in government medical colleges to ensure headcount during the inspections is still happening. This technique is to mislead the Medical Council of India and the University of Health that the faculty appointments are done on a regular basis. It is a fact that there are not enough doctors in the newly started government medical colleges. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure that necessary arrangements are made to make adequate appointments or ensure that things including patient care and teaching in medical colleges are not disrupted. However, there is great reluctance to take steps for it. As the phrase to close the hole with darkness, every year there are temporary and ad hoc measures to disrupt the functioning of leading government medical colleges.
This time also 71 doctors from Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur, Kozhikode and Manjeri Medical Colleges have been transferred. They have been shifted en masse to Wayanad and Kasaragod Medical Colleges, which operate with limited facilities. The Medical Education Department has assured that all of them will be brought back to their old positions as soon as the inspection by the higher committees is completed. As it will take about three months to complete the inspections, the functioning of four government medical colleges including Thiruvananthapuram may be disrupted for this period.
42 people have been transferred to Kasaragod Medical College and 29 people have been transferred to Wayanad. One can imagine the current status of the functioning of these two medical colleges from this situation itself.
Whose fault is it that the medical colleges that were started with big celebrations to provide better treatment facilities to the people of the northern districts are not benefitting them sufficiently? Those who reach the government medical college hospitals in these two districts have to run to Kozhikode Medical College if they are in need of expert treatment.
There is no dearth of doctors who hold advanced degrees in the state. Just the recruitment process needs to be speeded up, but that won't be done. There is no need to mention the delay in recruitment through PSC. Showing the 'let everything happen at a slow pace' approach to the appointment of doctors in medical colleges is nothing but cruel.
It is the common people who resort to Medical college hospitals today. Everyone knows the hardship and misery of the doctors working there. Many people work there under so much pressure. It is often not possible to even confirm the disease by asking the patients for information. Such is the rush. The government should at least take steps to end the practice of transferring doctors en masse to fool the committees that come to inspect the college facilities, which is similar to the style of some old rulers who used to shift the capital in winter. The Medical Council had also warned against this trend before. However, there was no result. Such stopgap measures are not the ones needed to improve the functioning of newly started medical colleges.