Decision taken due to alleged lack of transparency in admissions. Present batch of 500 on edge despite being assured they will not be affected
The 102-year-old College of Physicians and Surgeons (CPS) in Parel has attracted the ire of the state-run Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC), the registering body of allopathic doctors in the state, for the alleged lack of transparency in conducting admissions and exams. In a notice, the council has stated that it will not recognise diplomas awarded by the college to students it now admits this year onwards, putting its latest batch of 500 students on edge.
Since the college has two rounds of admissions, one in February and one in August, those who have already taken admission in February are a worried lot even though the MMC has verbally assured them that this move will not affect them.
"The Maharashtra Medical Council has decided to suspend the qualifications awarded by the College of Physicians and Surgeons for additional registration. Fresh admission batches 2014 onwards will not get registration for additional qualification. Any person seeking admission 2014 onwards should take a note of it," states the notice.
"We demand clarity on the notice. We spend two years pursuing our diploma, so if it will not be recognised at the end of the day, we will have wasted a lot of time," said a first-year student of ophthalmology from KJ Somaiya Medical College.
"Any MBBS student passing out after pursuing a post graduate diploma from CPS will not be provided registration from the MMC," said a MMC official. It is mandatory for a doctor to be registered with the MMC to practice in the state.
Last year, the MMC had issued a show cause notice to CPS asking why its courses should not be de-recognised. The CPS, which runs akin to a university, co-ordinates with up to 110 institutions including trust-based, government-run and BMC's peripheral hospitals to offer 1,000 post graduate diploma seats in 25 medical and surgical specialties. Each hospital affiliated with CPS issues advertisements in the media and conducts independent entrance exams as well as interviews before meting out PG seats to students.
"We have taken action after students who have studied with CPS pleaded us to take steps. Donations accepted in return for seats run into lakhs. We have simply asked that a common entrance test format be followed to make the admission procedure transparent," said an executive council member from MMC.
Dr Girish Maindarkar, president, CPS said that admissions were being conducted in a fair manner and that MMC could also inspect its examination processes any time. He also said that the state medical education department had issued a government resolution (GR) asking for MMC to recognise CPS courses in 2012. "The final say rests with the medical education department of the state government. We are pleading with them to mitigate the situation."
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