UP Medical teachers to now retire at 70

Lucknow: The State Medical Education Department in an effort to overcome faculty shortage, the resultingweakening of post graduate medical education and the de-recognition threat to Government Medical College, has proposed the raising of retirement age of teachers from 65 to 70.

A formal proposal for state cabinet's approval is being put together by the Medical Education Department officials declared the Additional Chief Secretary, Medical Education, Anita Bhatnagar Jain.

The secretary believes that the decision will impact in the manner of ‘checking the constant fall in number of teachers which puts the quality of teaching at stake.’

A 25% shortfall of medical teachers at various rank levels is witnessed in state medical colleges of UP. The said percentage even rises to 50% depending upon the on the rank of the medical college/institution and the no of years the college has been in existence. The impact being that the colleges often face the threat of de-recognition at the hands of the Medical Council.

The idea of a raise in retirement age of medical teachers has already been approved of by the chief Minister Yogi Aditya Nath at a departmental presentation . The proposal is now to be tabled before the cabinet in another few weeks said sources in the DME.

The decision would immediately affect teachers in SN Medical College, Agra; Moti Lal Nehru Medical College, Allahabad; GSVM Medical College, Kanpur; Maharani Lakshmi Bai Medical College, Jhansi; Lala Lajpat Rai Medical College, Meerut;and Baba Raghav Das Medical College, Gorakhpur.

The newly established state medical college teachers in Ambedkarnagar, Jalaun Azamgarh and Kannauj, will also be impacted. Same will be the case with teachers in institutes like Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences and King George's Medical University, who also stand to profit from the change.

The Medical Council has also been advocating the raising of teacher retirement age in Medical Colleges across the country to 70 years. According to the Council with 398 colleges in the country offering 52,000 MBBS seats, state governments often raise retirement ages within prescribed limits.

"Shortage of professors limits opportunity for post graduate medical education which takes a toll on specialization and the number of specialists remains low," Dr D P Mishra, Former Head of UP Government Doctors' Association told TOI.