Bandaru Dattatreya, Minister of Labour, Govt. of India, : Save ESI Medical Education Institutions

We, the undersigned, write to you to strongly protest against the recent decision of closure of Medical Education Institutions run by the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC). 13 Medical Education Institutions run by the ESIC , including medical colleges, dental colleges and nursing colleges, have been closed down by the Government of India. This will further weaken the already beleaguered public health system and public funded medical education. As it is, the government has announced massive cuts on public spending related to providing basic facilities like health, education, employment.

The medical education institutions were started by the ESIC in 2012-13. But in the Board Meeting of ESIC held on 4th January, 2015, the board decided to close down all the medical education institutions run by the ESIC. Such a move will not only jeopardise the future of thousands of students presently enrolled and displace the teaching and non-teaching staff, but will also affect the hospitals and medical services under ESI, which as an institution, caters to the need of the unorganised working class of this country. Implications of shutting down the ESIC hospitals :
Firstly, this will mean a huge waste of public money, since already around Rs. 5000 crores has been spent in constructing and running these institutions. Secondly, it will adversely affect the future of the two batches of students already enrolled in these institutions, along with the teachers, paramedics and other staff. The students in these institutions are caught in a terrible situation, as they are being offered two equally bad and undesirable options: complete their 5-year course at the present college or be transferred to a medical colleges run by the respective state governments. Transfer to state medical colleges will mean that the present batch of students would lose one or two years as they have to restart their education. Such an adjustment will also mean a cut in the number of seats for the state-level students in the respective state level medical colleges for the coming two years. The second option of continuing in the same institution till the present batches finish their education and then shut them down is also not viable because the Medical Council of India (MCI) grants recognition only to those institutions that have batches in all five years. Since the ESIC Medical Colleges will have only two batches it is obvious that their degrees will not be recognised by the MCI.

Further, in closing down these public medical colleges, the government is contradicting its own findings in its own Draft National Health Policy which clearly states that the private medical education institutions have failed to produce well-trained doctors. The report also states that the government plans to establish around 50 more new medical colleges across the country to tackle the shortage of doctors in the country. Despite such findings and recommendations on paper, the government is proceeding with the decision to shut down the ESIC medical colleges. It is a common knowledge that health care facilities tend to be better in all those public hospitals which have attached educational and research centres- as we see in hospitals like AIIMS or Safdarjung. It is mandatory for the doctors, nurses and other medical personnel trained by the ESIC medical colleges to serve in the ESI hospitals for five years, thus ensuring smooth availability of quality skilled medical professionals in these hospitals. Since, the ESI hospitals are meant to provide quality and affordable health care facility to the vast unorganised workers in the country, the move to close down the medical colleges run by the ESIC will only downgrade the health services for the workers. If the Labour Ministry is ‘unable’ to fund the ESIC medical colleges, the govt can make the logical arrangement of a takeover of the ESIC Medical Colleges by the Union Health Ministry.

We feel that this closing down of ESIC medical colleges will only accelerate the process of privatising health care and medical education and weaken the network of a public health care system. We oppose the move to close the ESIC institutions, and demand:

1. Immediate REJECTION and REVERSAL of the Memorandum No. L-11/12/3/20-(Corporate Cell)/ ME Cell dated 05th January, 2015, sd/- Dr. Vivek Handa, Dy. MC (ME-II), and continuation of all the running courses, including students’ admission in the coming academic sessions.

2. Immediate ISSUANCE of a circular / order on behalf of the ESIC to continue all the existing courses (maintenance of status quo), assuring the future and career of the students and faculties, as well as continuation of admissions in all these already built-up infrastructure.

3. Continuation of Infrastructure development, faculty recruitment, and renewal of permissions for the recognitions from Medical Council of India, Dental Council of India and Nursing Council of India in all the currently running Teaching Institution, for the interest of recognition and validation of the students’ degrees and the Faculties’ experiences.

4. If ESI corporation fails to run the teaching institutions due to any reason, then to initiate handing over all the ESIC-run Medical, Dental, Paramedical and Nursing Institutions to the CENTRAL MINISTRY of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of India without any attempts towards privatization, or forcing the states on the basis of the essentiality certificates, as the state governments have already expressed their inability to take over the Institutes as per the clauses of huge monetary demand placed by the ESI corporation, and as the states are already 1/8th contributor of the entire ESI scheme, whereas the Central Govt. is not a contributor of a single penny into the scheme, and plays the role of a moral guardian to the scheme, without any responsibility.

5. T he teaching Doctors with specialization and teaching experiences are not to be forced to enter a non-teaching role, as this would lead to a huge loss in trained and experienced human resources in a field already scarce in the era of commercialization of healthcare.