A confidential inspection report commissioned by the Maharashtra state government's medical education and drugs department has exposed the poor state of private medical colleges in India's most progressive state.
Most of the 187 medical colleges in the state did not have adequate infrastructure, staff, or facilities—at the same time as charging fees that did not reflect the cost of establishing the colleges or the facilities provided to students, according to the report.
Of the 17 private medical colleges that taught modern medicine, nine were short staffed by between 50% and 63%. "Most of the faculties [professors, associate professors and lecturers] shown by the colleges are working on part-time basis on meagre monthly salaries as low as 2000 rupees [£24; $44; €35]," says the report.
The past decade has seen a proliferation of private medical colleges in India. They have been at the centre of controversies and have been accused of corruption and of charging exorbitant admission fees or taking bribes running into millions of rupees for admitting students from India and abroad, irrespective of merit.
After exposure in the media the state's governor, Mohammed Fazal, asked the government to investigate. The resulting report, which covers medical, dental, traditional ayurvedic, and homeopathic colleges, is the most detailed indictment of the state of private medical education in India, running to five volumes.
Mr Fazal noted that although the Maharashtran government had ensured that the colleges were given land and supplies of water and electricity at highly concessionary rates,
The Medical Council of India, a statutory body that licenses medical colleges throughout India, says that staff shortages should amount to no more than 5%. Only one of the colleges achieved this level. The report points out, "It is surprising that in spite of such clear shortages, the Medical Council of India has been recognising these colleges from year to year."
Shortages in non-teaching staff, such as essential laboratory support staff, were between 60% and 70%. The inspectors also found the colleges to be deficient in physical infrastructure, and a shortage of equipment was noted in almost all the colleges. The most obvious deficiencies were in the numbers of beds available for teaching and in clinical materials.
Even when teaching beds were available the patients were found to be missing during inspections. In one instance a patient in an orthopaedic ward disappeared within 10 minutes of the inspection, thinking that the team of inspectors would not come again, the report notes.
In an ayurvedic college the team found no wound or signs of illness in a bandaged patient who had been admitted on the day of the inspection. "It is surprising how the medical colleges try to cheat the system by bringing patients by luring them with financial or other benefits," says the report.
The report has been sent to the state governor, and action is awaited.