The Kerala Government Medical College Teachers’ Association (KGMCTA) has demanded that the “unscientific” mass transfer of medical college faculty to the new Government Medical Colleges of Wayanad and Kasaragod, on the eve of an inspection by the Kerala University of Health Sciences (KUHS), be withdrawn.

The Director of Medical Education had issued a transfer order on Thursday, transferring 71 faculty from Manjeri, Thrissur, Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram Medical Colleges to the new Medical Colleges of Wayanad and Kasaragod, with the directive that they join the respective institutions the very next day.

The KGMCTA pointed out that the enmasse transfer was effected so that the new Medical Colleges of Wayanad and Kasaragod would meet the faculty requirements set by the National Medical Commission (NMC), when KUHS conducts the inspection.

They pointed out that the government, instead of creating adequate faculty posts in new medical colleges, was resorting to its usual tactics of transferring faculty from one institution to the other to somehow clear NMC norms and that this was totally unacceptable.

It said that none of the Medical Colleges in the State had adequate faculty for teaching and patient care and that the government should be creating new posts instead of upsetting patient care in hospitals. KGMCTA pointed out that it was not the first time the government was resorting to temporary measures to make up for faculty shortage. Even those faculty who had been transferred barely a year ago as part of general transfers have also been transferred this time and this was bound to upset their personal affairs too.

The government should be looking at long-term and creative measures to improve the facilities and academic output of existing Medical Colleges, KGMCTA said.