By By Amer Malik
The King Edward Medical University's (KEMU) recognition status is at stake as up to 44 posts of senior medical faculty are lying vacant in basic sciences as well as clinical departments.
Senior medical teachers are of the view that Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) may withdraw the recognition status of the KEMU for up to 44 seats of senior medical teachers including five posts of professors, 24 posts of associate professors and 15 posts of assistant professors, were lying vacant for the last several years, badly affecting the quality of medical education and healthcare services in the premier medical and health institution of the country.
However, the official sources, on the condition of anonymity, said that the varsity administration had recently advertised 18 posts including four seats of professors, six seats of associate professors and eight seats of assistant professors to be filled on contract basis, which they dubbed as a breach of Punjab government's policy of making appointments on regular basis.
They said the vacant post the KEMU was going to fill belonged to the King Edward Medical College (KEMC), and fell under purview of the Punjab Health Department. Therefore, they could be filled on contract basis.
The doctors of KEMU are of the opinion the posts of medical teachers should be placed in a general pool of the Health Department, which should be filled on regular basis through promotions of doctors from other medical institutions across the province.
The KEMU has also failed to develop its own faculty since up-gradation from college to university level. Under the KEMU Act 2005, Section 4(j) the university shall ëcreate posts of professors, associate professors, assistant professors, and demonstrators and other posts for research, publication, extension, administration and other related purposes and appoint persons theretoí. The officials say that the KEMU had, so far, been able to create some administrative posts like Registrar, Controller of Examinations, etc., and seven new posts in Department of Anesthesia (one professor, two associate professors and four assistant professors), a few posts in Urology, etc., with the approval of Syndicate.
Section 20(2) states, ėThe existing government employees of the King Edward Medical College, Lahore, shall be deemed to be the employees of the university unless they opt for their retention in the government...,". It is worth mentioning here that all the employees of the institution including the incumbent vice-chancellor had en bloc opted to stay in the provincial government service. However, the incumbent pro vice-chancellor, who initially opted to serve as an employee of the university, had also returned to the provincial government's service.
Ever since the employees opted for their retention in the government, the KEMU's failure in faculty development task has taken its toll on the quality of undergraduate and postgraduate medical education in the university.
Meanwhile, according to vacancy position of teaching cadre posts in KEMU, a total of five seats of professors, including four posts in the departments of Biochemistry, Pharmacology, Radiology and Nephrology at Mayo Hospital and a seat of professor of Anesthesia, created by the Syndicate, for attached Lady Wellington Hospital and Lady Aitchison Hospital, are lying vacant.
Besides, a total of 24 seats of associate professors, including five seats in Department of Anesthesia, three seats in Mayo Hospital and one seat each in Lady Wellington Hospital and Lady Aitcheson Hospital, two seats each in Department of Gynecology (Unit-III of Lady Wellington Hospital and Lady Aitchison Hospital) and Department of Pharmacology, and one seat each in the departments of Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry, Forensic Medicine, Preventive Pediatrics, Cardiology, Nephrology, Psychiatry, Ophthalmology (Unit-I), ENT (Unit-II), Neurosurgery, Plastic Surgery, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Orthopedic Surgery (Unit-I) and Radiotherapy (Oncology), are lying vacant.
Similarly, a total of 15 seats of assistant professors, including two seats each in the departments of Anatomy, Community Medicine and Anesthesia - one seat of Anesthesia each in Mayo Hospital and in one of the two other attached hospitals - and one seat each in the departments of Physiology, Biochemistry, Pathology, Psychiatry, Radiology, Plastic Surgery, ENT (Unit-I), Pediatrics (Paeds Radiology) and TB & Chest Medicine (Chest Radiology), are lying vacant.
Besides, it is learnt that several posts of demonstrators are also lying vacant, whereas, medical officers, serving on current charge basis, are awaiting their promotions.
Highlighting the gravity of the situation in Department of Anesthesia, which is a critical intervention in all kinds of surgeries in over 25 clinical departments of the three attached hospitals of KEMU, the doctors informed that Prof Syed Millat Hussain recently got retirement. Prof Dr Khawar Ali had been transferred and posted in Shaikh Zayed Hospital, Rahim Yar Khan, though he had yet to relinquish the charge. However, Prof Asghar Ali Randhawa from Punjab Medical College, Faisalabad, has been appointed on the post of Professor of Anesthesia.
With the departure of Prof Dr Khawar Ali, there would be only one Professor of Anesthesia out of two sanctioned posts in Mayo Hospital, while another sanctioned post of Professor of Anesthesia for attached Lady Wellington Hospital and Lady Aitchison Hospital is also vacant.
Furthermore, five out of the total six sanctioned posts of associate professors in Department of Anesthesia, three out of four sanctioned posts in Mayo Hospital and two posts (one each) in Lady Wellington Hospital and Lady Aitchison Hospital, are vacant.
Sources said that only assistant professors, no associate professor, had applied for the advertised posts of associate professors. Similarly, two out of eight sanctioned posts of assistant professors of Anesthesia, one out of four seats of Anesthesia in Mayo Hospital and one out of four in the two other attached hospitals, were also lying vacant. Three seats of assistant professors in Lady Wellington Hospital and Lady Aitchison Hospital have been filled recently. The surgeons have complained that the extreme shortage of Anesthetists had been severely affecting the surgeries of a large number of patients in all three attached hospitals.
The doctors further informed that there was severe shortage of medical teachers i.e. professors, associate professors and assistant professors in basic sciences departments like Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry, etc, the subjects which are studies by all students of MBBS, BDS and Physiotherapy.
In basic sciences subjects, according to PMDC rules, there should be one demonstrator for 25 students, an assistant professor for 50 students, and an associate professor for 100 students and two professors for 201 to 300 students. Under these rules, the strength of medical teachers in basic sciences is not sufficient in comparison with the enrolment of students i.e. 280 in MBBS Part-I, 280 in MBBS Part-II, 90 in BDS and 45 in Physiotherapy - therefore unable to meet the PMDC rules.
They said the qualified teachers were not willing to join KEMU, especially on contract posts, unlike when a number of candidates applying and looking for recommendations to secure the vacant slots.
On the other hand, they said, senior professors were leaving from the university to join other public and private sector institutions.
KEMU Vice Chancellor Prof Zafarullah Khan was not ready to give his version despite university's spokesman conveyed the message in this regard.
However, KEMU spokesman Dr Tabassum claimed that, presently, only 23 posts of senior medical teachers were vacant in the university out of which 18 posts had already been advertised and scrutiny of applications was being done. It was not possible to take away the recognition status back as vacancies keep on emerging due to frequent transfers and postings, he added.
When asked about a total of 44 vacant positions, he said that senior registrars and assistant professors, recently regularized by the Punjab government, had filled the vacant posts, though doctors contended that promotions, not regularization, could only fill the vacant posts.
When asked about KEMU's policy of appointments on contract basis as opposed to government's policy of regular appointments on Health Department's posts, he said that the Health Department had authorized university to either conduct appointments itself or get them done through the department. "The university is indirectly conducting these appointments through the Punjab Public Service Commission by having its one member in the selection board," he said, adding that the university would make appointments on a five-year contract to be regularized after two years by following the example of one-year probation period in PPSC appointments.
When asked about the university's failure in faculty development, he said that the university's hands were tied until the completion of Surgical Tower because the minimum requirement for new posts, according to PMDC's requirements, was 35-40 beds in a given department. However, he said that the Syndicate had created seven posts in Anesthesia and two posts in Urology as well as establishment of two separate units of Skin Department.
Talking to The News, Health secretary Anwaar Ahmad Khan said that KEMU was not authorized to conduct appointments on government's posts on contract basis. ėThey can't make appointments on contract basis," he asserted when informed that PPSC was recruiting doctors on regular basis. However, he said that KEMU must have been doing appointments on its own posts. When asked if KEMU had created its own posts, he said, they did not have funds to develop their faculty.