The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Stanley course denied Medical Council of India's recognition

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 13, 2006
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Stanley course denied Medical Council of India's recognition

R. Sujatha

Panel has found want of equipment

STATELY BUILDING: A view of the Stanley Medical College at Royapuram in Chennai. — Photo: S. S. Kumar

CHENNAI: The M.Ch. degree programme of the Neurosurgery department of the Government Stanley Medical College here has been denied Medical Council of India's recognition for want of equipment.

The recognition will enable students to practise anywhere in India. The department admits MBBS graduates directly for the 5-year M.Ch. So far, 15 students have qualified for the degree.

The MCI panel that visited the hospital a few months ago said in its report that the department had "adequate clinical material," but "instrumentation is inadequate in terms of MRI."

The inspection team was satisfied with other parameters such as bed strength, intensive care facility, staff strength and teaching capabilities.

Doctors here are upset that though the department was the first in the college to start the speciality course in 1980, it does not figure in the list of five medical colleges that were sanctioned MRI equipment in the State Budget.

Every year the department receives several hundred patients with a history of head injury and many with spinal injuries that can be better diagnosed using an MRI.

The Government has sanctioned MRI equipment to its hospitals in Tiruchi, Madurai, Coimbatore and Vellore costing Rs. 5 crore. The Madurai hospital already has one machine. The Tiruchi hospital does not have a Neurosurgery department and in Vellore students are still in their second and third year undergraduate course, say senior authorities. The doctors say that last year, 3,249 people were admitted to the trauma ward. Nearly 350 patients were referred to the 28-year-old department, says its head K. Deiveegan.

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