MYSORE MEDICAL COLLEGE & MEDICAL COUNCIL OF INDIA: OF TODAY & THOSE DAYS

By N. Samba Murthy
SOM of 30th April carried two vital articles concerning medical and health management; one pertaining to
administration of Mysore Medical College & Research Institute's (MMC&RI) teaching hospitals and the other article by
Dr. Javeed Nayeem on Medical Council of India (MCI).
On the former, Minister Suresh Kumar laments, "K.R. Hospital is supposed to be a lifeline not only for the sick and
ailing of Mysore but also for neighbouring districts." In the latter, Dr. Nayeem asserts that the arrest of Dr. Ketan
Desai proved his charge that the MCI was better known not for its contribution to medical ethics but for its own
corrupt practices. Ironically Dr. Desai is the chief of not only MCI but also of GMA and WMA as well.
In contrast with the above, my memory goes back to 1963-1966 on the positive image of course, concerning these
two institutions. I was associated with MMC as a lecturer in the PPC department. Prof. N. A. Narayana Rao was the
unit head. During this period, many good and caring souls like Dr. J.J. Dharmaraj and Dr. Manikyam the Deans, B.
V. Puttaraj Urs the Vice Dean, Dr. A. T. S. Iyengar, Dr. Sampath Kumaran, Dr. Lakshminaranaiah, Dr. Anikar at
MMC, Dr. Gopalarajan, Dr. K.G. Das, Dr. Bhargava, Dr. Jayalakshmi Y. Iyer, Dr. Sherief, Dr. Suryanarayan Rao and
other senior doctors at the teaching hospitals guided the medical students and rendered medical services to patients.
Patients came from not only Mysore district but most parts of the then Mysore State and even neighbouring States as
well. If not cured in K.R. Hospital they were referred only to CMC Vellore.
During that period MMC had only degree college status. PG college status was yet to be achieved. According to the
guidelines of the then "IndianMedical Council (IMC)," preliminaries and basic requirements to upgrade the MMC to
attain PG status were earnestly started by the college and hospital administration.
As a first step, the progress and results of the medical students from 1947 to 1965 were tabulated and analysed
highlighting the path of successes and failures and also the bottleneck situation at pre-clinical and clinical stages.
This was done to improve the standards at degree level as a prerequisite to start PG courses. The second stage was
upgrading the clinical units and paraclinical departments with latest equipments and infrastructure at the OPD and OT
of medical and surgical blocks.
The next stage was updating and organising the medical records management system pertaining to registration of
patients, diagnosing the diseases, prescription of medicine, treatment and hospitalisation details which were hitherto
being done in registers and sheets.
The only hospital in the country that could boast of a well kept and organised medical records department was CMC
Vellore. Naturally, a visit was planned to CMC Vellore to gain a first hand knowledge of the functioning of
its Medical Records Department. After this visit and studying its functioning, as well as a great deal of discussion with
its chief Dr. Sundar Rao and his colleagues yielded a good result in understanding the format and the system of
records keeping.
A sample set of various forms and other records were collect-ed for planning our own model for
establishing Medical Records cum Bio-Statistics unit at MMC hospital. This was one of the prerequisites sought by
IMC for sanctioning PG Studies and Research Institute's status to MMC.
In the meanwhile, the then Chairman of IMC Dr. Bhatia telegraphically had informed the dean Dr. Manikyam, that his
team from Delhi would be visiting MMC to inspect and review the various departments of the college and the hospital
units for evaluating the grant of PG status to MMC. He had given only about a week's time.
As it was summer vacation for us at PPC department, Dr. Manikyam sent a messenger immediately to my home with
the message that I should meet him urgently. Raleigh cycle, the mode of quick transport in those days, took me to the
Dean in about 20 minutes. He immediately apprised me about the urgency and assigned me the task of setting up
the Medical Records Department within 5 days from that afternoon.
He introduced me to the Supe-rintendent of Government Printing Press, Saraswathipuram, over phone and explained
him the urgency of the situation requesting him to do the needful in printing out all the needed forms and other
records as per the formats which we had finalised after consulting the unit heads of all the professional and
paraprofessional departments.
Those forms were designed conforming to the WHO standards and requirements comprising different stages from
consultation, lab tests, diagnosis, prescription, advice, OPD, casualty, admission with colour and classification codes
for disea-ses, discharge and deaths se-parately for medical and surgical treatments.
Another unique feature was, in the case of rural and mofussil patients coming for treatment at these hospitals, the
concept of medico-social workers was envisaged. With these workers to be stationed at the City Railway Station and
bus stands to identify ailing patients and bring them to the hospital if need be, availing ambulatory services for getting
the treatment at the casualty or as in-patients. Medico legal case entries were also planned with due care.
The Superintendent and staff of the Government Press delivered all the printed materials packed in bundles with
separate labels for quick processing of the same, as the time at our disposal was too short. Those were the days
when no autorickshaws or luggage carriers were available. The Dean arranged for the hospital ambulance and kept it
ready for taking the delivery of materials from the Press because of the urgency of the matter.
A spacious corner room in the first floor of OPD at K R Hospital was quickly allocated and furnished with wooden
tables, racks, almirahs for display and storage for the Medical Records Unit. The hospital artist made the sign board
for the Medical Records-cum-Bio-statistics department at the premises instantly. The Medical Records Unit was
ready to receive the inspection team of IMC Delhi, within one week's time as per their schedule.
The septuagenarian, nearly seven feet tall, highly disciplined, the ex-army doctor, IMC Chairman Dr. Bhatia did arrive
and visited the college and the hospital as per his schedule. After the meeting and interaction with the heads of
various units, he went around all the departments of our medicalcollege and teaching hospitals and finally
the medical records department too. After seeing and observing the various forms and records at the unit and while
going out he patted the back of our Dean and remarked, "You Mysore folks are always ahead of others. Do not wait
for the formal approval, you can start off the PG course forthwith."
This was how the environment of medical profession at Mysore in particular and the whole of the country in general
prevailed, in those days. May we see such cordial and conducive environment again when we can write and etch, on
the front walls of all the medical and health service providers, both public and private with the dictum "vaidyo
narayano harihi."
We Mysoreans are ever optimists. We certainly wish such good old days will usher in again amidst all of us.