Hyderabad: Teacher trouble as 400 doctors will retire by 2017

Hyderabad: As many as 400 doctor-teachers will have retired from the five government medical college hospitals in four years, at the end of the academic year 2016-17. As many as 176 doctors will retire later this year.

The five medical colleges — Osmania, Gandhi, Nizamabad Kakatiya and Mahbubnagar — have 2,500 faculty in 35 departments, including professors, associate professors, assistant professors and tutors.

According to data with the director of health and medical education, two professors are retiring every month. There is no professor for anatomy, pharmacology, anaesthesia, general medicine and physiology in Osmania, Kakatiya and Nizamabad medical colleges.

Associate professors have been made in-charge professors and are teaching at the colleges and monitoring at the hospitals. A senior associate professor said, “We have been made in-charge professors and given the work of professors. To qualify as a professor we need to do research and submit the thesis which must be accepted and published in a medical journal. This procedure has to be followed strictly but that is not the case now.”

While bifurcation is being cited as one of the reasons, TS doctors are upset as AP has appointed more than 300 doctors and filled the vacancies at the post-graduate and associate professor levels.

Dr Kukashekar Rao, who retired as head of ophthalmology at Gandhi Hospital, said, “We have been asking the government to increase the age of retirement from 58 years to 65 years. This is according to the guidelines issued by the Medical Council of India. This has been done in AP, which has helped ease the shortage and the doctor’s experience is well utilised.”

In TS, private colleges are reaping the benefits as the retired doctors are joining them as professors. A senior doctor said, “The salary of '1.5 lakh is a huge incentive. The demand had been put forth but with no action from the government doctors are looking at private colleges.”

Teaching is affected at the government colleges.  Dr S. Shanker, a junior doctor, explained, “One professor is teaching 200 MBBS students. Ninety per cent of them opt for private tutorials as the professor has no time to clear doubts.”
In Kakatiya Medical College, new post-graduates are teaching MBBS students due to the severe shortage.

The Telangana Government Doctors Association has asked the government to give promotions on the teaching side. Association member Dr P. Naik said, “No one has been promoted for four years. Associate professors have to be promoted to professors so vacancies are created in the lower rungs which can be filled with fresh recruitments. Presently, associate professors are doing the work of professors on the same pay scale which is very unfair.”

The principal secretary health has now asked the director of health and medical education to prepare a list of promotions and vacancies.

MCI tracks I-T data of doctors
For the academic year of 2016-17, the Medical Council of India has linked the income-tax certificates of professors in government colleges with their data pool.
Sources said this was  done to track faculty movements during MCI inspections.

“When inspections are carried out, there are sudden transfers of faculty from one college to another to show the strength,” a source said. “This can no longer happen as the MCI will look at the financial calendar and from where the last salary was drawn.”

He said the clause was put in place as colleges were increasing the number of seats though they did not have adequate teaching staff. Private medical colleges will be monitored in the same way.

The MCI has prepared a database of professors in different colleges and those who shift for a short duration ahead of the inspections will be questioned.