Rx for recruitment: medical colleges in critical need of faculty Premium

Telangana govt's Whitecoat Revolution to establish one med college in each of 33 districts faces staffing hiccups. Despite highest MBBS seats in country, 1,061 applicants selected for 1,442 posts, leaving 381 posts empty. NMC stipulates 100 MBBS seats for 10 lakh population, Telangana has more than double. Doctors report staff shortage, long shifts, distant postings, salary delays. Govt urged to focus on existing public healthcare infrastructure.

At 10 a.m. on a Thursday, the 150-bed Government General Hospital in Telangana’s Nagarkurnool district is a beehive of activity. People, from mothers in their 20s to seniors in their 80s, form a queue of about 70 people, each of them clutching their outpatient slips. Outside the diagnostic labs, a slightly smaller queue extends far beyond where the corridor turns. In the duty doctor’s room, a 5x5-metrespace, there are two beds, a chair, and a washroom. It is here that medical professionals spend gruelling 24-hour shifts, their bags and tiffin boxes on the beds. The room is not designed for comfort, but for the hard work of healthcare in India. 

Some of the doctors here serve as assistant professors at the Nagarkurnool Government Medical College, which is attached to the hospital. These assistant professors, with work experience of about a year of senior residency after three years of post graduation, were recruited in May this year and assigned to various medical colleges across the State, with a particular focus on the eight new ones inaugurated by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao in 2022. This is part of the Telangana government’s ambitious Whitecoat Revolution — a plan to establish one medical college in each of the 33 districts. 

This plan is nearly complete, with 26 government medical colleges already operational in the State and eight more set to be inaugurated in the upcoming academic year. While the government appears committed to developing the infrastructure, there is growing concern about the availability of manpower. In many of the new medical colleges, there is a faculty shortage, putting a burden on existing doctors. 

The establishment of 17 government medical colleges in the past two years has positioned Telangana as the State with the most MBBS seats in the country, offering 22 seats per 1 lakh population, according to data provided in Lok Sabha. On July 28, 2023, in response to a question asked in Lok Sabha, Minister of State in Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Bharati Pravin Pawar shared that Telangana has a total of 8,540 MBBS seats. Considering the population of Telangana which is approximately 4 crore, the number comes down to 22 seats per 1 lakh population.

The National Medical Commission (NMC), the regulatory authority responsible for overseeing medical education and professionals in India, stipulates that the medical colleges shall follow the ratio of 100 MBBS seats for 10 lakh population in that State and Union Territory. According to the data available, Telangana has more than double the number of seats as recommended by the NMC. While this increase in seats is a significant achievement, it also entails the responsibility of recruiting adequate staff to ensure that these medical colleges produce well-trained doctors. 

Of the 1,442 assistant professor posts sanctioned by the government, the final selection list released on May 8 this year revealed that only 1,061 applicants had been selected, leaving 381 posts empty. The recruitment was conducted for 34 departments under the Directorate of Medical Education.

At the Nagarkurnool medical college, which was opened last year and currently has two cohorts of MBBS students enrolled, doctors report a staff shortage across a majority of the 19 departments. Classrooms bear the creative touch of students, featuring handmade charts on human anatomy. Of the nine sanctioned assistant professor posts, only four have been filled.