IGMC, Tanda medical college face staff shortage

Kuldeep Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, April 12

The Medical Council of India (MCI) has again pulled up the state for not filling about 39 faculty positions vacant at the Dr Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College (DPGMC), Tanda, and 27 at the Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC), Shimla.

Patients as well as students are bearing the brunt of the situation.

Both medical colleges, 780-bed IGMC, the state referral hospital, and the 175-bed Kamla Nehru Hospital, attached to the DRPGMC, Tanda, have 213 sanctioned faculty positions, but only 186 have been filled.

The IGMC has a sanctioned strength of 99 assistant professors, 58 associate professors and 56 professors. But the college has 88 assistant professors, 45 associate professors and 53 professors, revealed sources.

The worst-affected are departments of neurosurgery, which has just one senior neurosurgeon, pulmonary medicine, paederiatric surgery, nephrology, which has just one nephrologist, neurology, including blood and transfusion medicine, nuclear medicine, physiology and forensic medicine and anatomy.

The situation at the DRPGMC, which is being promoted as a super-specialty medical college by the successive Chief Ministers and Health Ministers, is even worse. The college has 39 faculty positions vacant out of the sanctioned 142.

The DRPGMC, Tanda, has just 21 professors as against the sanctioned 35 posts, 23 associate professors out of 40 sanctioned posts and 58 assistant professors out of the sanctioned 66 posts.

Besides, 27 posts of senior residents and 23 posts of junior residents are vacant. In all, the college has 315 sanctioned posts out of which 95 are vacant, revealed a college data as on March 19, available with The Tribune.

The MCI, in its recent notification, shot off after it inspected the colleges in December 2014, stated that there was no room for ad-hoc faculty in the medical colleges, both private and government. The faculty presented at one college cannot be presented at the other, the MCI remarked.

But the state medical fraternity has charged the MCI of targeting government medical colleges while giving a free run to the private universities and colleges.

The teachers said it was good that the MCI pointed out deficiencies in the colleges, but it should treat both government and private institutions at par.