The National Medical Commission (NMC) has raised concerns about the College of Physicians & Surgeons of Mumbai (CPS) for not adhering to regulatory provisions and has issued a show-cause notice. The NMC has recommended banning admissions to CPS’s postgraduate medical courses due to non-compliance with the Postgraduate Medical Education Regulations, 2000, and the Maintenance of Minimum Standard of Medical Education Regulation, 2023. The NMC’s letter to the health ministry highlights that CPS and its affiliated institutes have not renewed their courses regularly as required.
Through affiliated institutes, CPS, an autonomous entity, provides postgraduate diploma and fellowship courses. These programs offer a different path to postgraduate medical education than the conventional MD/MS programs. But the NMC has noted that CPS has not supplied the information required about the institutions that are conducting its courses, information that the state medical councils need in order to record the credentials of their students.
In order to guarantee high-quality instruction at a reasonable price, medical schools providing these courses must register with the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBE), as stated in the NMC’s letter. The NMC made it clear that CPS is a non-governmental entity without the jurisdiction to approve or recognize any medical course or certification, in contrast to CPS’s assertion that it is an examination body similar to NBE.
During a state-directed assessment, the Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) found serious shortcomings in a large number of the institutions providing CPS courses. Of the 120 institutions that were inspected, two hospitals were closed, 74 declined to be inspected, and serious flaws were discovered in the majority of the 44 institutions that were inspected. This led to the conclusion that students’ careers would suffer if they were admitted to these institutes.
The Indian Medical Council Act, 1956, as well as later announcements from the health ministry, confirm that CPS courses are approved by the Indian government and listed in the NMC Act’s Schedule, according to Dr. Naresh Alreja, deputy registrar of CPS Mumbai, who denied the NMC’s accusations. Alreja asserted that the NMC’s letter was deceptive and that the MMC’s inspection results were overwhelmingly good. He stressed that admissions counseling takes place following MD, MS, or diploma courses, and that CPS courses are recognized by state legislation.
The Maharashtra government de-certified all 26 CPS courses in July 2023 as a result of scandals involving candidate quality, supervision, transparency, and corruption. But following talks between a recently appointed CPS committee and the medical education secretary.
SOURCE:
MEDICAL DIALOGUES
