Poor health of medical colleges: Ajit Pawar addresses problem

Staff Reporter

Ajit Pawar, Deputy Chief Minister has asked officials concerned to plan the separation of administration and healthcare system in Government Medical College and Hospitals (GMCHs) in State properly. “The Government believes that the present system of working is creating an overload on medical colleges, leading to degradation in quality of healthcare delivery,” he said. Pawar was addressing a review meeting held here on Tuesday. Years ago, the Government had divided Public Health Department into two -- Public Health and Medical Education. Now, both are working in their domains. Over the years, the Department of Medical Education is working on three fronts--administration, healthcare delivery and imparting education to their students. Over 12 years ago, the then Medical Education Secretary Bhushan Gagrani had suggested having two Deans to look after administration and healthcare-academics. Nobody knows what happened to that idea. The Shinde-Fadnavis Government has given a momentum to that idea by introducing some changes.

Dinesh Waghmare, Medical Education Secretary, who attended the meeting, told ‘The Hitavada’, “There will be two separate sections -- administration, and academic-plus-healthcare. The Government is planning to appoint a Chief Executive Officer to handle the administration part while Dean will continue looking after the healthcare and academic.” In the present structure too, Government Medical College and Hospitals (GMCHs) are working in two sections --administration and academic-healthcare. Medical Superintendent is the administration head while Dean has the overall control. As per planning of the present Government, the CEO will take care of non-medical appointments, various purchases, including medicines, surgical items, equipment, various construction works, cleanliness, security, maintenance etc. Dean will have control over the education, healthcare.

Dr Prakash Wakode, former Joint Director of Medical Education said, “National Medical Commission (NMC) is also for separating administration and healthcare-academic. But NMC has made it clear that the control should remain with Dean. I don’t know the detail planning of Maharashtra Government so I won’t be able to comment on it.” Pawar told officials, “Government hospitals are a support for common man for healthcare. For this, priority has been given to providing all necessary facilities and equipment to medical colleges. The districts where new medical colleges are sanctioned should preferably be located in central parts of the cities. Medical Education department should also make efforts to ensure that the common man gets immediate medical treatment. Along with new medical colleges, the staff structure should also be created and present vacancies should be filled.”

Pawar called the Collectors of Bhandara and Wardha on phone and asked them to give momentum to the medical colleges there. Hasan Mushrif, Minister of Medical Education; Dr Nitin Karir, Additional Chief Secretary of Finance Department; Saurabh Vijay, Principal Secretary of Planning Department; Dinesh Waghmare, Principal Secretary of Medical Education Department; Rajiv Niwatkar, Commissioner of Medical Education; Dr Dilip Mhaisekar, Director of Medical Education; Dr Raman Ghungralekar, Director of AYUSH Directorate and others were present in the meeting. The meeting also reviewed the construction works at Chandrapur, Gondia, Nandurbar, Satara, Raigad-Alibag, Sindhudurg, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Nashik, Super Speciality Hospital at J. J. Hospital.