Shortages, Ghost Faculties jeopardising Telangana Medical colleges

Hyderabad: Foundation of Various Medical colleges in the state seem to be on shaky grounds with the issue of inadequate faculties reaching new heights. State run government medical colleges are facing acute faculty shortages due to faculty recruitment not having been undertaken, while on the other hand, private medical colleges are witnessing an ever growing ghost faculty menace.

Several non clinical departments of government run colleges are worst hit in the state due to shortage of faculty. Two hundred assistant professors are yet to be appointed while notification for the same by the Telangana Health Department is nowhere in the offing. Some of the non-clinical departments calling for faculty recruitment include:

• Anatomy


• Physiology


• Biochemistry


• Social & preventive medicine (SPM)

The colleges crying out for faculty recruitment include: Osmania Medical College and Gandhi Medical College. They happen to be running on shadowy staff. The newly started Mehboob Nagar Medical College has outdone all other colleges by asking its biochemistry faculty to teach anatomy to the first year medical students.

The government run

Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences is short of five assistant professors. . "The government must fast-track the process of medical teachers' recruitment as the future of medicos is at stake," Dr G Srinivas, of the Telangana Junior Doctors' Association (TJUDA) told TOI.

Ghost faculty is gradually taking on mammoth dimensions in private medical colleges. The menace of it is now leading to poor clinical experience for medical students. A dozen or more private colleges in and around Hyderabad have ghost teachers on roll. This is done to fool the Medical Council of India officials during conducted inspections.Though a few medical colleges do employ part time teachers to teach clinical subjects, they are found to be absent in hospitals attached to the colleges.Clinical teachers are meant to be in the hospitals in the mornings and take classes in the afternoon.

"Unlike state-run medical colleges, medicos in private medical colleges cannot protest. But their clinical experience in hospitals attached to the colleges remains quite poor as the appointed medical faculty exist only on paper. They show up only during MCI inspections," said a faculty member in a city-based private medical college.

The Medical Council of India is however,trying to cope with this menace, in private medical colleges, by making installation of radio-frequency identification (RFID) system, and regular online attendance updates- mandatory said an MCI member Dr. K Ramesh Reddy .