A number of private medical colleges have reached out to the Union health ministry asking it to rescind a recent order by the National Medical Commission (NMC) to fix fees for 50 percent private MBBS seats at par with government medical colleges in the states. The order is to be implemented from the next academic session.
Top sources in the health ministry said that the colleges, in their representation, said they would go to court if the NMC diktat is not withdrawn.
The medical education regulator had last month said that private medical colleges in India will have to keep fees for half the seats at par with that charged by government colleges in the states they are located in.
These guidelines, aimed to make medical education accessible for a larger number of students according to the commission, will be effective from the next academic session and will need to be mandatorily followed by the fee fixation committees in every state.
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Of 596 medical colleges in India at present, 283 are run privately and comprise nearly 43,000 seats while there are 313 government-run colleges that have a little over 45,000 seats.
A large number of private medical colleges are concentrated in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra. Fees at a private medical college in India can be in the range of Rs 10-25 lakh a year, which means that students have to shell out anywhere from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1.25 crore for the duration of the course.
In contrast, the annual fee for a government-run college in India can be as low as Rs 10,000 to Rs 1.25 lakh.
The principal of a medical college in Telangana who has reached out to the government over the NMC guidelines but did not wish to be identified told Moneycontrol that the regulator had not taken into account the huge investment required to set up and run a private medical college.
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“Apart from setting up a medical college which costs nearly Rs 200-300 crore, we pay upwards of Rs 3 crore to teaching faculty every month—how are we going to survive if we are not allowed to generate revenue through fees?” he asked.
‘Government colleges subsidised’
The head of another Maharashtra-based institution who has knocked on the doors of the ministry told Moneycontrol that government colleges can charge lower fees because they are heavily subsidised by the government.
“They do not have to worry about paying salaries to the faculty or day-to-day maintenance of the college and the teaching hospital,” he said.
He also pointed out that an analysis carried out by the predecessor of the NMC, the Medical Council of India, had shown that in the country’s top government colleges, the government spent nearly Rs 1 crore in producing a single doctor.
A senior official in the medical education section of the health ministry said that despite the representation by private medical colleges, it has not yet asked the regulator to rethink its guidelines.
“But the (private) colleges look set to challenge the guidelines legally,” he added.
Bid to establish practice followed in 1990s
Dr Arun Gadre, a founding member of the Association of Doctors for Ethical Healthcare, said that the NMC guidelines are a welcome step though ideally medical colleges should solely be in the public sector.
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He pointed out that in the 1990s the same system was in place and was functioning quite well but the Supreme Court later ruled following a petition by private colleges that all seats in such medical colleges shall be paid seats and chargeable at the rate of private colleges.
“The Parliament did not bother to overrule it,” he said. “So if some private college appeals to the Supreme Court, the NMC decision may not hold.”
‘Help private colleges financially’
Dr Gurinder S Grewal, former president of the Punjab Medical Council, said that there is a national awakening for making education, especially medical association, affordable.
He said that all corruption in medicine starts from fees.
“The colleges that charge too much fees normally skip students with merit and later these students, once they are doctors, indulge in unethical practices as they have paid hefty fees to earn their degrees,” he said.
The government, said Dr Grewal, should either help private colleges financially so that there is a viable economic model or open more government medical colleges.
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