LAHORE: The Quaid-i-Azam Medical College (QAMC) of Bahawalpur, one of the major institutes in south Punjab, is facing threat of closure thanks to the Punjab government’s ‘flawed’ recruitment policy.

It is the oldest medical institute in south Punjab and admits 325 students annually against 300 seats. The institution also has a credit of producing more than 200 qualified doctors annually to meet the health needs of the region besides other parts of the province.

A senior official told Dawn that the problems at the QAMC arose when the Punjab government increased 25 admissions annually in 2010-11 without following legal procedure. The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) refused to register the medical students admitted against these “illegal seats”, he said.

The Council also said the QAMC was already facing shortage of the faculty for the 300 students and more admissions would be a violation of its regulations. The official said instead of following the PMDC instructions, the Punjab government through a new policy transferred senior faculty from old institutions including the QAMC to fill positions at the four newly-established medical colleges to make them functional.

Meanwhile, the four-year correspondence between the three major stakeholders -- the PMDC, the health department and the QAMC management -- proved futile as the Council warned the institute of “derecognition and closure” for not completing the formalities.

He said since the issue of the faculty and the recognition of additional students had not been addressed despite repeated warnings by the PMDC, the number of “unregistered students” had reached 1,625.

The QAMC also faced shortage of senior faulty as the PMDC through a last warning in a letter had identified over 50 top positions at the college, that is, professors, associate and assistant professors. As of now, all four positions of professors of medicine are vacant.

As the issue persists, the QAMC faces a major penalty of derecognition and closure by the PMDC. The future of over 2,500 students of three public-sector medical colleges of this deprived region is at a grave risk.

Earlier, the PMDC had derecognised the Sahiwal Medical College, stopped its admissions and clearly written to the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination for the closure of this college “permanently”. The PMDC had awarded punishment when the Punjab government failed to address the critical deficiency of the senior faculty and other mandatory steps despite repeated warnings. Later, it also derecognised the DG Khan Medical College.

Started in 2010, these two colleges were allowed admission of 100 students each annually. At present, the final-year classes at these colleges are going on which means around 1,000 medical students of these two colleges are facing bleak future.

The PMDC regulations say all students admitted to first year must be registered with it otherwise it would neither recognise their education nor register them after passing MBBS.

The Council rejected the request of the QAMC first time when the institute sent a request for the registration of first batch of 325 students in 2010-11. It informed the QAMC that it was already facing shortage of faculty for 300 students and its request to register 25 additional students would not be entertained at any cost.

Since the college pursued the case for registration, the PMDC directed it to improve faculty deficiency first and get the additional 25 seats approved. No inspection has been carried out by the PMDC.

To avoid punishment by the PMDC, the QAMC advertised the vacant posts in 2014, selected some doctors on an ad hoc basis and forwarded their cases to the health department for the issuance of orders against the appointments but the matter is pending.

The PMDC in its last warning wrote to the QAMC, “As per PMDC record it is observed that the teaching faculty of the QAMC Bahawalpur is deficient for 300 MBBS admissions” and directed the college to rectify its faculty as per seat allocation (300 admissions). “You are fully directed to comply with the PMDC rules and regulations in true letter and spirit. In case of non compliance strict action may be taken against your institution under section 25 of Medical and Dental Council (amendment act) 2012 substituting Section 22 of the PMDC Ordinance, 1962,” the letter warned.

Setting aside the warnings, the health department issued orders for the transfer of more faculty members from the QAMC and this step further worsened the situation. Some of the senior doctors of the institute also retired in 2015. The college management was shocked to learn that the health department on March 3 last transferred two assistant professors from medicine department of the QAMC and posted them to the Sahiwal Medical College as associate professors on a current charge basis against existing vacancies without taking into account reservations of the QAMC principal.

Dr Mazhar Faiz Alam and Dr Azfar Farogh were looking after affairs of the training of the students, education in college as well as the healthcare of patients at the departments in the absence of the heads of the units.

On finding the Punjab administration unmoved, QAMC Principal Prof Dr Haroon Khurshid Pasha finally wrote a letter to the health secretary stating that his college was on the verge of closure since the PMDC had issued last warning. He requested the secretary to withdraw the decision of transferring senior doctors.

Giving an example of one unit alone, he said in the department of medicine the condition had gone from bad to worse due to transfer and retirement of professors. He said now the transfer of further two assistant professors from the department would adversely affect the case of recognition with the PMDC.

Mr Pasha also requested the health secretary to appoint four professors of medicine to avoid any strict punishment by the Council.

Additional Secretary Admin Adnan Zafar, who looks after the affairs of the teaching hospitals in Punjab, said the department was aware of issues and efforts were under way to address the complaints of shortage of faculty. He said the health department had already dispatched promotion cases of medics to the Punjab Public Service Commission and the vacant positions of various specialties and disciplines at government medical colleges also were being filled.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play