The country’s health education sector has lately been making headlines because of fast-unto death staged by Dr Govinda KC. Although he ended his protest after 14 days on Sunday, issues related to quality of medical education here and practice of posing foreign doctors as full-time faculty members will continue making rounds in the days to come.

In this regard, The Himalayan Times talked to Nil Mani Upadhyay, Registrar of Nepal Medical Council, the medical sector regulatory body, and also a senior aesthetician, who has previously worked at B&B Hospital, on various issues related to the NMC and medical education.

There are claims that Nepal Medical Council (NMC) shows biasness while conducting inspections of medical colleges and allocating student intake quotas. What is your take on the issue?

People are currently trying to tarnish the image of Nepal Medical Council, despite our efforts to root out malpractices from the medical sector. They have blamed us for allocating student intake quotas in different medical colleges haphazardly. But these allegations are not true.

If you visit a doctor complaining of stomach ache, he or she will not immediately prescribe medicines. The doctor first goes through the medical history of the patient and sees whether the patient’s family members are suffering from the same disease. The doctor then conducts various investigations and prescribes medicines. So, before blaming anyone, one should also conduct proper investigation. When I first joined the Council, nothing was right here.

There was only one computer in the office. I computerised the system here. Then I came up with stringent rules on licensing for fresh graduates. I had to fight hard to introduce those provisions, as many were against me. But I stood my ground and I did that to enhance the quality of the medical sector. I also introduced stringent rules for inspection of medical colleges. It’s because of these rules that we have been able to control ill-practices in the medical education sector.

Besides, we have also cracked down on around 150 to 200 students who had obtained post-graduate degree from foreign medical colleges by studying for only a year. They would have created a disaster if they had been allowed to continue practising medicine. So, we had to stop them. That’s when we started taking tests of post-graduate students.

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This year, when we took those tests, 160 post-graduate students failed. And students who fail go to the extent of issuing death threats. Let me tell you another incident. After I joined NMC, I reduced annual student intake quota of Janaki Medical College because it was not meeting the standard set by us. My terms of reference permits me to execute tasks entrusted upon me by the Council, so I took that decision because that was the right thing to do.

After that people labelled me as an anti-Madhesh person. But I didn’t dither. After I reduced student intake quota of another college, I was attacked by a gang brandishing khukuris. Today, I don’t have a social life. And this is the price that I am paying for trying to rectify things.

There were claims that NMC had recently raised student intake quota of a college by going against the rule. Is that true?

What people do not understand is that it is the university that fixes new student intake quota at medical colleges. The Council only cross verifies the decision taken by the university and states whether the decision taken by the university is appropriate. So, the Council can reduce the quota, but it cannot raise the quota. So, why are people blaming us and not the university?

You must be aware of an incident that took place at Janaki Medical College two years ago. Tribhuvan University allowed the college to enrol 80 new students. But when we conducted onsite inspection, the college failed to meet the standard set by us. So we reduced the quota to zero.

The college then moved the court and the court backed the decision taken by the university. The following year, the Council and university conducted joint onsite inspection. And since the college failed to meet the standard, its quota was reduced to zero.

Lately, the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has also been dragged into these controversies because the chief commissioner’s brother is also operating a medical college. What is your take on the issue?

If any government body summons a registrar, he or she has to be present at their offices. The CIAA has been summoning NMC officials before Lok Man Singh Karki was appointed as the chief commissioner.

So, this is nothing new and people need not harbour suspicions. However, the CIAA chief commissioner and I are on the same page on the issue of introducing stringent rules to regulate the medical sector. So, I don’t care about people who are talking nonsense.

There are also rumours that many medical practitioners here possess fake certificates. How are you trying to control this problem?

Yes, that’s true. Many say most of these fake certificates come from India. But lately we have started coming across fake certificates bearing names of Nepali universities. We are verifying those as well. I have personally handed over around 70 certificates deemed to be fake to the Indian Embassy and asked the officials to conduct an investigation.

After six months, the embassy officials told me they can only verify the authenticity of the seal, and the Council will have to reach out to respective universities to verify authenticity of certificates. So, we are doing our best to enhance the quality of the medical sector.

What is your opinion on rampant hiring of doctors, especially Indians, who pose as faculty members during NMC inspections?

Here again it is the university which should be monitoring activities. Universities generally work together with colleges so they regularly get updates on what is happening there. NMC conducts inspection only once a year. However, we have now started communicating with Medical Council of India (MCI) to root out these abuses.

We have already started sending the list of Indian doctors enrolled as full-time faculty members in various medical colleges here to MCI. If those doctors are found to be working as full-time faculty members in Indian colleges as well, we will have grounds to prove that those medical practitioners are only posing as faculty members here because one person cannot be at two places at the same time. If this is proven, the Indian regulator will suspend the licence of such medical practitioners for up to five years.

Already, we have identified engagement of around 39 fake faculty members in various dental colleges here, thanks to the support extended by the Indian regulatory body. In return for India’s favour, NMC will also trace Nepali doctors, who are posing as full-time faculty members in Indian medical schools. If we find engagement of Nepali doctors in this fraudulent practice, we will suspend their license as well.

I know the faculty is the heart of any learning institution. If the faculty is strong, a college can churn out quality doctors. If not, patients will suffer. So, we are committed to enhancing the quality of medical education here and will never hesitate to introduce harsh reform measures. And once we are able to solve this problem, the maximum annual student intake quota can be raised from the existing 150 to even 1,000.

I must tell you that the institute where Dr Bhagwan Koirala, one of the active members of the Mathema committee, studied in Russia used to enrol 1,000 students per year in different faculties. But they were managing everything very well. And it’s the same everywhere around the world. So, the issue here is not about the intake quota but the quality of the faculty and management skills.