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Pay through nose to become a doc

CHENNAI: A medical seat costs as much as a two bed-room apartment in the city. And if you decide to add the tuition fee you pay for the undergraduate programme, you could comfortably buy a flat in an upmarket locality!

Capitation fees at private medical colleges and deemed universities have touched Rs 45 lakh. In the last lap, they are likely to go up by another Rs 5 lakh. The minimum capitation fee for a private medical college seat in the city is Rs 15 lakh. The tuition fees vary between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 5 lakh, depending on the medical college.

Capitation fee has been strictly banned by the state government, but only on paper, admits health minister MRK Panneerselvam. There is nothing we can do because parents are willing to pay anything for their children to get into a medical school. We ve not been able to take action because of lack of evidence. And though many complain that they are paying through their nose, no one ever gives it in writing, he said.

Given the autonomy the deemed universities enjoy, anyone with 50% marks in plus-two and enough money can get an MBBS seat. There are at least five deemed universities in and around Chennai, offering 100- 150 medical seats each. Some pay in cash, while others give cheques in the name of donations to the hospital. In our hospital, we ask most parents to pay through cheques as donations for heart surgeries as collecting cash becomes tedious. Also, donations are the safest, said a staff of a private medical college.

Health secretary V K Subburaj says the government has fixed an upper limit for tuition fee in four medical colleges that come under the TN Dr MGR Medical University . But there is nothing we can do about several other deemed universities. We have no control on their fee structure, he said.

Senior management of medical colleges say they have to charge high fees to meet the overheads. According to the Medical Council of India rules, we need to have at least 12 members of faculty in a speciality. Though we get enough doctors on the clinical side, it is tough to get people on the non-clinical side. We pay huge salaries in departments like anatomy, pathology and forensic medicine, said a chancellor of a private university.

While those like former selection committee secretary Dr C Ramachandran proposed more PG courses in non-clinical streams to meet the demand for faculty, Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University vice-chancellor Dr Meer Mustafa Hussain said the MCI should fix a ceiling of salaries for faculty.