Debate stalls new MBBS course

The MCI secretary’s letter to the Vice-Chancellors states: "The revised regulations are an improvement on the existing recommendation on graduate medical education and were prepared after sufficient deliberations by experts and the MCI."

The MBBS course comprises three academic years of 18 months each. With the new course, the first academic year will be for 12 months. In the past few years, delay in admissions have resulted in the loss of a few months in the first academic year. The letter from the MCI underlines that the deadline for admissions should be enforced by the universities and that the universities/state government should conduct examinations in time so that students can join the course by August 1. Also, that universities should hold examinations and declare results well in time so that the next session can start as per schedule.

Deshmukh said "Students should be informed about any new course before admissions, but the academic year has already begun. We were unable to start the new course this year and the MCI has been informed about it. We have received the curriculum followed by universities in Gujarat and Karnataka. The same will be implemented next year."

She however feels that reducing the course duration by six months in the first academic year will not help.

She says, "Many people had suggested an integration of subjects like anatomy, medicine and surgery, which has not come across in the new course. For this though, students should be familiar with the basic anatomy of the human body. This, apart from the fact that the anatomy course has been revised recently."

Pointing out discrepancies in the recommendation, Dr P S Shankar, Dean of Sommaiya Medical College, says, "The posting in the opthalmalogy hospital should be in the seventh not ninth semester as the examination in the subject is conducted much earlier. Among the minor postings in the second academic year, the two-week period that should be allotted for anaesthesia is missing. The three-month pediatrics course should be in the sixth, not fourth semester, as the students will have a better foundation in medicine and surgery by then."

Deshmukh had forwarded the MCI recommendations to deans of all medical colleges asking for their suggestions. These suggestions will now be discussed at the Bombay University academic council meeting to be held this month.