PRESS RELEASE
Chennai, Amendments to the Indian Medical Council Act suggested by the Council to improve the quality of medical education and delivery of healthcare facilities to the people, by way of accreditation of educational institutions and re-registration of medical professionals are pending for long with the government, said Dr. Kesavan Kutty Nayar, Acting President of the MCI. He was inaugurating a two day brain storming session organized by Sri Ramachandra University here yesterday as part of the platinum jubilee celebration of MCI to fine tune medical education. He regretted that ‘we do not have the concept of accreditation of medical education including medical institutions and are operating in the realm of recognition based on compliance of minimal standards. A comprehensive model of accreditation recommended by MCI in 2004 which suggests amendments to the IMC Act of 1956 has not been acted upon till date. Similarly the proposal of the Council to amend the Act to provide for re-registration of medical professionals every five years based on credits obtained by them through continuing medical education, has not been implemented. Another significant challenge is our inability to realize the constitutional obligation of socialization of medical education, Dr. Kesavan Kutty Nayar added. Mr.Ved Prakash Mishra, Executive Member of the MCI elaborated on the initiatives to revamp medical education and the 27 themes suggested by it for a national debate, The suggestion that MCI like the UGC should perform a role in prescribing the service conditions and salary structures for faculty should also be incorporated into the Act, he said. The Vice Chancellor of Tamilnadu Dr.M.G.R Medical University, Dr.Meer Mustafa Hussain wanted the curriculum for MBBS to be reverted to 18 months of training in basic medical sciences like anatomy, physiology and bio chemistry where there is an acute shortage of teaching staff. Speaking on the occasion, Dr.T.P.Kalanithi, Director in charge, Medical Education, Government of Tamilnadu suggested increasing the student teacher ratio in pre and para clinical subjects to meet the shortage of teachers in basic sciences. Explaining the far reaching changes made in the integrated system of medical education and the txtensive continuing medical education programmes conducted by Sri Ramachandra University, its Vice Chancellor Prof.S.Rangaswami said the emerging learning methodologies of students and the tough demands of the well informed patients call for a major revamp of medical education. In his welcome address, Prof.K.V.Somasundaram, Dean of Faculties, SRU said the university has been in the forefront in organising several programmes to update medical education in keeping with the times. Dr.P.V.Vijayaraghavan, Secretary, Medical Education Unit of SRU said that the debate on Sunday will cover challenges to integration in medical education, SRU experiences on integrated curriculum, the integration and assessment of the hidden curriculum and integrating community based practice in medical education. .……………………………….. T.G. Nailamuthu, Consultant, Media Relations, SRU 9444265578, naIlarnuthu@hotmail.com |
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