Pimpri: Starting the postgraduate medical college attached to the Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital (YCMH) of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) is not possible for the civic body this year. It has failed to complete the formalities required to start the college.
The Medical Council of India (MCI) has sanctioned 44 post graduate seats for the proposed college, which is likely to begin from the next academic year.
Ten specialisations will be taught in the college. The civic body has already initiated the process for hiring the staff for the college.
The college has been proposed in order to provide adequate doctors to the hospital, which is facing acute manpower crunch. Considering a large number of people visit the hospital on a daily basis, the idea of starting the college was initated in 2012 during the tenure of the then commissioner Dr Shrikar Pardeshi.
However, the MCI turned down the proposal due to some technical reason.
Pardeshi, who is currently posted in the Prime Minister’s Office, has played a crucial role in the recent approval of the college.
According to PCMC sources, the civic body is supposed to pay Rs 20 lakh for 10 specialisation subjects to the MCI. But the official responsible for getting approval from the standing committee has proposed only Rs 2 lakh. It is expected to pay Rs 2 lakh for each specialisation subject.
Hence, the PCMC failed to submit a proper application with adequate fees this academic year. Now, the PCMC is completing the procedure but the admission season has got over. So, it will start the first academic session from next year.
The State government in December appointed an officer on special duty to work on the institute. Dr Padmakar Pandit, Professor in Pharmacology from the BJ Medical College, Pune has been chosen for the job.The officer is working on obtaining various permissions from different authorities to start the institute.
The PCMC has started interviews for recruiting doctors as faculty for the institute on a contract basis after the end of the election code of conduct. Earlier, the civic body had obtained permits and approvals to start the institute.
However, it failed to kick off due to the lack of the exemption certificate under section 8(1A) of the MCI Post Graduate Medical education Regulations, 2000.
Dr Pardeshi had initiated the idea to start the college, jointly with the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS), Nashik, in 2012.
