As most medical colleges are facing a shortage of teaching doctors, the government has decided to crack down on professionals whose attendance is below the stipulated limit. The standing committee comprises two permanent members -- the medical education department's secretary and Director of Medical Education and Research (DMER). Deans of all government medical colleges where honoraries have been appointed are also included in the panel. Of the 11 government medical colleges in the state, eight have honorary doctors, altogether numbering 163.

Though the panel was set up three months ago, it started its inspections only last month, government officials informed. The beginning was made at JJ Group of Hospitals, which has 103 honoraries -- the maximum in the state -- and those with lowattendance were pulled up. According to government officials, letters were issued to 16 professors, asking them to explain reasons for their absence. In their replies, several honorary professors professed ignorance about the very existence of an attendance register, saying they were unaware they had to sign the muster!

As it was the first time, the honorary professors were let off with a mere warning. The panel also held a meeting last week with those at JJ having very low attendance.

The monitoring will be made more intensive from now on, said government officials, and other than regular checking of attendance registers, there are plans to introduce feedback forms. Students will be given these forms and asked to state if professors are regular. Patients will also be asked for comments.

The dean of every college will be the best person to observe work of honorary doctors, said DMER Dr V L Deshpande, adding there are several parameters to check the amount of work put in, like number of hours of OPDattendance, number of operations conducted, and clinical work.

Due to bureaucratic delays, a number of posts of honorary doctors in government colleges were not filled up last year despite issuing advertisements in papers. According to Dr A C Mohanty, dean of JJ Group of Hospitals, new appointments couldn't be made due to the election code of conduct in force then. But 78 appointments have been made throughout the state in the last eight months, and 23 at JJ itself. Now, it is necessary to ascertain if the honorary system is working well, said Dr Deshpande.

But honoraries themselves have no doubts about the efficacy of their system. Dr Lekha Pathak, honorary professor at JJ and president of the Honorary Medical Association of Bombay (for government hospitals), said despite being paid just Rs 1,500 per month, honorary professors put in a lot of work. ``The cream of medical professionals wouldn't want to take up a teaching job all the time, so honoraries are necessary,'' she said.