Ethics Fee?

It may be a public hospital for poor patients, but that does not prevent it from charging fancy sums for services given to its own staff members and students. I received a letter from the institutional ethics committee telling me the revised charges for submission of research proposals to the Ethics Committee were revised to rupees 40000/- for pharmaceutical sponsored research (compared to original rupees 25000), rupees 5000/- for government sponsored research, and rupees 500/- for self sponsored staff members’ research (compared to original Rs. 100), students’ proposals for postgraduate dissertation proposals etc. The massive hike in fees was to meet increased cost of stationery, computers and need to employ more administrative staff. What used to be in house work is now so sophisticated that they charge so much for it, and still find multiple faults with the proposals they receive and scrutinize. One would expect to have one’s proposals passed quickly if they charged so much! (That was a PJ). Seriously, they must be considering to buy one computer per research proposal, if they need rupees 40000/- to scrutinize each proposal. Perhaps even hiring one person to do office work for scrutiny of each proposal. I hope they improve in the scrutiny at least. The last time they had asked my student to change the title of the dissertation from “Laparoscopic oophorectomy plus vaginal hysterectomy” to “Laparoscopic Abdominal Vaginal Hysterectomy (LAVH)”. It was the first time I had heard anyone undergoing laparoscopic, abdominal, and vaginal hysterectomy at the same time. The only reason I could not laugh till my sides ached was because I had a sense of dread for the institute, considering the quality of work done by a body meant for improving the quality of proposals of research. That dread has not left me yet, and I am afraid it may never leave me. We are academicians as much as clinicians. A part of our job description includes research, as the medical council and university believe, I believe. It strikes me as funny that we have to spend our own money to do our work, for which we should be paid, not charged. Pharmaceuticals are not interested in original research in hospitals. They just want clinical trials with reports in support of their products that they want to market or promote in the market. Original clinical research in the field of one’s interest should be sponsored by the institute. But here the institute is actually charging the staff members and students for that. I am not surprised that original research is dismally low at present, and will plummet to an all time low with this hike in the charges. The amount charged is not exorbitantly high, but the attitude is all wrong and extremely discouraging. I have a feeling that soon they will put water meters on our taps, electricity meters for our offices, bill us for the water and electricity, and even start to charge us for the use of the loo too.