Maharashtra derecognises courses of controversy-dogged CPS

The state government has derecognised all courses run by the College of Physicians and Surgeons (CPS). A gazette derecognising the courses was issued by the medical education department on Friday after medical education secretary Dr Ashwini Joshi found several lacunae. To compensate for the loss, the government has planned to increase 800 Diplomate of National Board (DNB) seats through various hospitals. Approved by the Central government, DNB is awarded by the National Board of Examinations. HT on June 18 had reported on the medical education department appointing a committee under Lt Gen (Dr) Madhuri Kanitkar, vice-chancellor of the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences to examine how seats can be increased.

The CPS was established in 1912 as an examination body and derives power to grant degrees under the Indian Medical Degrees Act, of 1916.During an inspection by the Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) last year, of the 120 hospitals running CPS-affiliated courses, 74 had refused inspection, and two institutions were found to be non-operational. In the remaining 44 hospitals, MMC’s inspecting team found severe infrastructural and faculty deficiencies and violations of the National Medical Commission (NMC) minimum standard requirement.

Based on the MMC report, Joshi in January and February, wrote two letters to the Union health ministry on the state of affairs at CPS and why admissions to its courses should be stopped.In the letters, Joshi stated that there are 1,028 seats offered by the CPS in the state. Apart from government and private medical colleges, these courses are also being run in standalone hospitals without permission from the government.The association of CPS-affiliated institutes then met union minister Nitin Gadkari and sought his intervention, after which Gadkari wrote a letter on March 9 to chief secretary Manukumar Srivastava, alleging that Joshi had a reputation of creating hurdles in the departments she worked in. Joshi’s office then sent a rebuttal to Srivastava, defending her stand and citing examples of Rajasthan and Gujarat that had stopped admissions to CPS courses.Among the public hospitals, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)’s peripheral hospital too had CPS courses. “Out of the 16 peripheral hospitals, four to five offered CPS courses, including diplomas in orthopaedics, gynaecology and obstetrics, ENT and ophthalmic medicine and surgery. We had started increasing DNB seats after the CPS admission was stopped. We plan to have more DNB seats in our hospitals,” a senior BMC health official said.