BANGALORE: For the first time in 24 years, doctors will have a fair chance of getting into Bangalore Medical College (BMC) and Mysore Medical College (MMC), thanks to change in the process of recruitment.

The Medical Education Department is planning to do away with the process of recruiting to both these colleges through advertisements issued by the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC). It has proposed to grant autonomy to the two colleges so that the hospitals can directly recruit their own staff. This proposal is pending with the Government.

Autonomy seems to have worked in the case of Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences in Hubli. The college had three vacancies a month ago but has called for interviews to fill the posts.

The changes in administrative process for recruitment to BMC and MMC are being mooted because of staff shortage. In spite of getting 300 doctors on deputation from the Health Department, the two colleges have 202 vacancies.

About 22 per cent of the sanctioned strength of 1,000 posts is vacant. The hospitals attached to BMC are Victoria, Bowring and Lady Curzon, Vani Vilas, Minto and Venkateswara ENT Hospital. Krishna Rajendra Hospital is attached to the MMC. The delay in recruitment to the colleges has been because of the administrative process. First, the Medical Education Department has to get Cabinet clearance before it can approach KPSC to issue an advertisement on its behalf.

Tedious process

"It is because the process is so tedious that medical colleges have avoided recruitments for so long," says a government official.

If the colleges are made autonomous, they can directly recruit staff without having to approach the Government every time there is a vacancy.

To maintain a check and balance over this system, a panel will be constituted to overlook the recruitments. Recruitment of Group D (clerical staff and drivers) cadre will be banned as the work is being outsourced, he says. So, how have the hospitals managed so far?

Both MMC and BMC have managed by getting doctors on deputation. As the Health Department is facing a huge shortage of doctors, it is getting tougher for the Medical Education Department to get people from there. The Health Department has a vacancy of 252 posts.

"A number of doctors who were on deputation to various other departments such as the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike and the Information Department are being recalled. It is a matter of time before the Health Department recalls its people from the Medical Education Department as well," a doctor from Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital said.

Recruitment

However, some doctors fear that recruitment of doctors to the hospital may not be easy until the pay scales are revised. At the start of service, a lecturer is paid Rs. 12,000 and a professor is paid Rs. 24,000.

"Why would some one want to work with us when they get more than three times the amount at private colleges and hospitals?" asked a doctor from Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital.

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