The Government Ayurvedic college (GAC) in worse Condition.

If you think Indira Gandhi Government Medical College is the only one that does not meet the prescribed standards, think again. The Government Ayurvedic college (GAC) in city is probably much worse. The college has been facing severe staff crunch as well as lacks in basic infrastructure for several years. But it wasn’t until last year when the Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM) began tightening the screws and conducting annual inspections on ayurvedic colleges that the college and the Department of Ayurveda, Government of Maharashtra, woke up and began taking corrective measures.

Though the college officially denies it, sources in college said that it has severe deficiencies beginning with teaching staff for under graduate (UG) or BAMS course and going up to Post Graduate (PG) staff. It does not have certain basic requirements for the 50 UG and 21 PG seats as per the CCIM norms. The authorities claim there was deficiency of only a few teaching staff. Presently out of the required 14 professors, the college has just nine. Of 23 readers or Associate Professors needed there are only nine readers.

The college is one short of 26 lecturers needed. The numbers of seats sanctioned for a college, especially the PG seats, depends largely on professors and readers. Sources say last year the college was allowed to fill only 26 of the 50 UG seats and 16 of the 21PG seats. Since the college has a 170-bed teaching hospital, patient care forms one of the most important component of services in the hospital.

Until last year, the college and hospital did not even have a proper compound wall and was home to many anti-social elements. The wall was repaired only after an agitation by the students and the resident doctors. There is no ambulance. “We have many times taken serious patients in cases like deliveries to the government medical college on our own. We had to even give money to them to hire an auto. For most of the time in last two years, the X-ray machine has been defunct. There is no ECG machine. College does not even have a botanical garden (a backbone of any ayurevdic college to show the source of various medicinal herbs). The administrative building, the hospital and the hostels have just one aqua guard for drinking water. Above all life saving drugs and essential medicines are missing all the time,” said a source. The operation theatre does not have even have sterilization facility. The paediatrics wards have no warmers or incubators.

There is an acute shortage of nursing staff. Even simple and basic pathological testing facilities for common diseases like malaria and typhoid do not exist.

“We need to conduct certain basic tests like liver function and kidney function tests

. We send all our patients to private labs,” said a senior doctor.