Now 'ghost' teachers haunt medical colleges!

Chandigarh, March 22: Medical science may not believe in the ghost stories but unethical practices adopted by private medical colleges and unscrupulous doctors in the region have put a big question mark on the standard of education being imparted and the kind of doctors being churned out by these institutions. With 436 ‘ghost’ teachers being discovered by the Punjab Medical Council (PMC) during its recent inspection of four private medical colleges in Punjab, Harya and Himachal Pradesh, a major controversy has erupted about the unethical practices adopted by these colleges and doctors. The PMC team found that the 436 doctors, most of whom were practising in Punjab, were simultaneously serving four medical colleges: MM (Maharishi Markandeshwar) Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Mulla (Ambala-Harya/240 doctors); MM Medical College and Hospital, Kumarhatti (Himachal Pradesh/84 doctors), Gian Sagar Medical College and Hospital, Banur (Punjab/64 doctors) and Adesh Institute of Medical Sciences, Bathinda (Punjab/48 doctors). “We are issuing show-cause notices to the concerned doctors. Action will follow, based on their replies. If they are actually teaching in these institutes in other states, they will have to be de-listed from the PMC,” PMC president G.S. Grewal told IANS. The PMC has received complaints that the doctors who were shown as faculty members in colleges in three states were running their private health clinics, hair therapy clinics, cosmetic therapy clinics and even offering treatment for heart ailments.  (IANS)