CCTV used to tackle problem of ‘ghost’ medical faculty

The Medical Council of India (MCI), a statutory body with the responsibility for establishing and maintaining high standards of medical education in India, has started installing closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras in classrooms, laboratories and outpatient departments of all medical colleges and associated hospitals as part of measures to put a check on ‘ghost’ and absent faculty.

There is a shortage of medical faculty in almost every private and government-run medical college. The MCI order said every medical college shall have a CCTV system and shall provide live streaming of both classroom teaching and patient care in the teaching hospital, to enable the medical council to maintain a constant vigil on the standard of medical education and training being imparted.

The live streaming of both classroom teaching and teaching hospitals shall be integrated as a part of the Digital Mission Mode Project of the medical council.

The order dated 29 January says each medical college premises in the country must have three cameras – one each in the classrooms, practical labs (pathology lab) and the outpatient department. It would be applicable for both the private and government-run medical colleges.

According to MCI officials, they often receive complaints about the inadequate number of lecturers and faculty and the new method will help expose this menace in both government and private medical colleges.

CCTV cameras will be installed in phases, and the exercise is likely to be completed in all medical colleges this year.

However, sceptics feel it doesn’t seem practical to observe lectures or outpatient departments live.

“The new system aims to rule out the possibility of foul play by any medical college during MCI inspections,” said Purvi Tiwari, a medical student in a private college.

“But the question is how they will solve the basic problem of faculty shortage. Most government-run hospitals don’t have sufficient numbers of faculty and doctors either to teach students or to treat patients. Will the installation of CCTV cameras solve this problem? Private hospitals also face shortages of faculty.”

Shortage of doctors

Dr Pramod Soni, in Bhopal city of Madhya Pradesh, explained that the Indian hospitals are severely overburdened due to a shortage of doctors.

He said CCTV cameras will only show more clearly the problem everyone is already fully aware of.

“By rough estimates, India has over 900,000 doctors for a population of about 1.3 billion, a ratio of one doctor for roughly every 1,450 people, against the WHO [World Health Organization] recommended norm of one per 1,000,” he said.

“Millions cannot access India’s overburdened hospitals and inadequate medical facilities. You don’t have the doctors to treat the sick. From where are you going to get the faculty to teach students? How CCTV cameras will be helpful in solving this problem is something beyond my understanding.”

Dr HL Mukherjee, a retired professor in Raipur, said it is highly impractical to assume that MCI would be able to take any effective action against the erring medical colleges that appoint on-roll ghost teachers, since most of the medical colleges in India do this on account of faculty shortages.

He said: “How can they act against so many colleges? It is possible to act against a handful of them, but not when so many of them are involved in this practice [of appointing ghost faculty].”

Sarika Shrivastava, who has just completed her graduate course in medicine, said that India has almost one million doctors. But roughly 10% work in the public health sector.

“So it is almost impossible for public sector medical colleges to solve the problem of faculty shortages. It is true that more medical colleges are being set up to produce more doctors. But this problem is not going to be solved quickly as doctors cannot be produced overnight.” Shrivastava also expressed concern that it would not be possible to maintain proper upkeep of the CCTV cameras in all the medical colleges.