The Gauri Karki-led commission has reiterated its call to take action against the senior doctors who had recommended the Tribhuvan University  (TU) to grant affiliation to National Medical College in Ghattekulo, Kathmandu, to run MBBS courses, despite the facility lacking infrastructures and requirements.

The high-level commission has sought action against individuals including Dr Karbir Nath Yogi whose inspection team had given the all clear to the medical college.

The team led by Dr Yogi had inspected the medical college on 11-12 November 2013, and submitted its report to the TU on 13 November 2013.

Every medical college should pass the inspection from the university that it seeks affiliation with and the Nepal Medical Council, the regulatory body of medical schools, before it is allowed to teach medicine.

In the case of National Medical College, which is an extension of the Birjung-based TU-affiliated medical school with the same name, the committee that recommended the TU for affiliation had submitted fake inspection report, listing non-existent infrastructures and services.

“All officials who inspected National Medical College are recommended for action on the grounds that they provided a fake report,” said an official, who has studied the commission’s report.

The report has named Dr Yogi; Dr KP Singh, the former director of the TU Teaching Hospital (TUTH); Dr Pramod Kumar Shrestha, of the TUTH Forensic Department; Dr Parshuram Mishra, of the TUTH Surgery Department; Dr Jyoti Sharma; of the TUTH Gyanecology Department; and Dr Ram Prasad Upreti, the former chief of Maharajgunj Medical Campus as the persons responsible behind fake report. It has recommended the government to not allow these individuals from holding any government or sem-government posts for the next three years.   

The report has also recommended action TU Vice Chancellor Tirtha Khaniya, Registrar Dilli Upreti and Rector Sudha Tripathi for their “dubious” roles in granting affiliation to private medical schools including the National Medical College.  The Karki commission has blamed their leadership for the “deteriorating quality of the country’s medical education”.

Question has also been raised on the role of Hira Bahadur Maharjan, the former VC of the TU, on the issue.

The Karki commission submitted its report to the government a few days earlier. The official response from the government is yet to arrive.

The controversy over National Medical College surfaced in July last year when the TU decided to grant affiliation to the former on the basis of a Supreme Court ruling of 16 September 2014, stating that the medical college fulfils the criteria to teach medicine. But after the court ruling itself drew crticism from different quarters, the TU was forced to withdraw its decision.