Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS), Faridkot, has decided to shift 259 MBBS students of White Medical College and Hospital (earlier named Chintpurni Medical College), Pathankot, to other medical colleges in the state. This decision has been taken due to the very poor condition of White Medical College and Hospital. Students were admitted in this medical college for 2021 and 2022 sessions. BFUHS will provide seats to these MBBS students in other medical colleges through online counseling process. To accommodate these students, 259 additional seats have been created in eight medical colleges including four government colleges.
On the orders of the Punjab Government, 150 additional seats have been created to shift the students enrolled in the MBBS course for the year 2022 to a total of eight medical colleges, including four government medical colleges. At the same time, 109 additional seats have been created in seven medical colleges including three government colleges for those taking admission in White Medical College and Hospital in 2021.
BFUHS has also released the schedule of online counseling to transfer these 259 students studying medicine. Students can choose college preferences from October 3 to 5. Seats will be allotted to students on 7th October. Students will have to join the seats in the allotted colleges from 8th to 9th October.
Students have already transferred
Dr Rajeev Sood, vice-chancellor of BFUHS, said, ‘The National Medical Commission (NMC) had during inspection found that White Medical College and Hospital lacked infrastructure and facilities. Even there was a shortage of faculty. Let us tell you that NMC itself monitors the quality of medical education in the country. Even before this, students of all the batches of this medical college were shifted to other medical colleges due to these reasons. The college management’s appeal was rejected by the NMC and the Punjab and Haryana High Court. After this the state government issued a special order to shift the MBBS students of Pathankot Medical College to other colleges. A special counseling will be conducted by BFUHS to allot seats to the students so that they can complete their remaining courses.
Also read: 96 MBBS seats are vacant here, people ranked up to 11 lakh had taken admission by fraud.
in controversies before
Chintpurni Medical College has been in controversies for a long time. This medical college was established in 2011 but was closed after inspection in 2017 as it failed to provide the necessary infrastructure and faculty for medical education. In December 2017, 249 MBBS students of the 2014 and 2016 batches were transferred to eight medical colleges in the state as per the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
Medical college reopened after changing name
In 2021, Chintpurni Medical College was renamed White Medical College and Hospital. In the year 2021 the college again managed to get permission to take admissions for MBBS batch. This permission to take admission on 150 MBBS seats will continue in the year 2022 also. After this, permission for MBBS admission was again withdrawn due to lack of infrastructure and facilities.
In May, 2023, BFUHS temporarily withdrew its affiliation for the 2023–2024 session after deficiencies were observed during a surprise inspection on February 17, 2023. During inspection, it was found that the medical college had failed to provide necessary facilities and faculty for MBBS as alleged by the petitioner students in the court. After this the NMC refused to renew the recognition given to White Medical College.
Earlier this year, the High Court had ordered the NMC and the Punjab government to transfer all the students of Pathankot’s White Medical College and Hospital to other colleges.
No one could do MBBS in 13 years
This medical college, which was started in the year 2011, was closed after five years in 2016 due to lack of necessary infrastructure. Since its establishment in 2011, the college has received permission to start only five new batches. Given the exit of three batches in 2011, 2014, 2016, 2021 and 2022 in 2017 and the ban on new admissions, only two batches (those admitted in 2021 and 2022) were currently on the campus. Now the students of batch 2021 and 2022 will also shift to another college.
