Govt approves common cadre to appoint faculty at medical colleges
The state government has in principle decided to establish a common cadre for all future faculty appointments at government medical colleges and super-specialty institutions to enhance equality, operational efficiency and overall quality of medical education and healthcare services.
“The establishment of a common cadre will create robust system, ensuring higher standards in medical education and healthcare delivery across the state,” said Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, adding that the government was committed to improve healthcare services.
At present, faculty appointments follow a college-specific cadre system, leading to administrative redundancies, inconsistencies in service conditions and acute faculty shortages, particularly in newly established medical colleges.
“To address these challenges, the common cadre system will create a unified structure for faculty recruitment, career progression and inter-institutional transfers, ensuring a fair and transparent framework for faculty management,” said a government spokesperson.
This initiative would standardise recruitment procedures, training programme and career advancement opportunities while harmonising service conditions across all government medical institutions.
This would allow for better faculty utilisation, ensuring that resources were efficiently allocated. The reform also aims to strengthen medical education by eliminating disparities in career growth and fostering a merit-based system for faculty promotions.
Additionally, it would enhance the quality of healthcare services, as better-managed institutions would directly contribute to improved patient care.
Meanwhile, the decision has not gone down well with the faculty of medical colleges in Shimla and Tanda. “We are totally against this decision and will raise the matter with Chief Minister,” said an office-bearer of the Shimla Association of Medical and Dental College Teachers (SAMDCOT).
“The common cadre could lead to a situation where our juniors in other medical colleges could come to the IGMC on transfer as our seniors. Why would someone accept it,” the doctor said.
“Common cadre will not enhance efficiency. We need to see how work suffered at the IGMC and Tanda when the colleges had a common cadre. Both the institutes benefitted when they were given separate cadre,” said an office-bearer of the Teachers’ Welfare Association of Medical College Tanda.