Hyderabad: Telangana’s top government-run tertiary care hospitals are reeling under a dual crisis of inadequate senior faculty and compromised medical education — a situation arising from the misallocation of experienced professors to peripheral health centres.
Despite their advanced expertise in fields such as cardiology, radiology, general medicine, surgery, and paediatrics, senior doctors are being deployed at remote healthcare facilities that lack adequate infrastructure and receive only primary healthcare cases. These centres typically do not require specialist interventions and often lack diagnostic essentials like CT or MRI scanners, rendering the specialists’ skills underutilised.
For example, a senior radiology professor, who could otherwise contribute significantly to high-volume centres like Niloufer Hospital or Osmania General Hospital, remains posted in a peripheral unit handling only basic cases.
Meanwhile, major teaching hospitals — including Gandhi Hospital, Osmania General Hospital, Kakatiya Medical College, and Nizamabad Medical College — are operating with a shortfall of senior faculty. This not only hampers patient care but also adversely impacts the training of postgraduate (PG) medical students, particularly in institutions with the highest number of PG seats in the state.
Raising alarm over the issue, the Telangana Government Doctors Association (TGDA) submitted a memorandum to State Health Minister Damodar Rajanarasimha over a month ago. The representation seeks immediate revocation of the existing ban on faculty transfers and redistribution of personnel to address faculty shortages at tertiary centres.
“We will continue engaging with health authorities to resolve this crisis,” said Dr B Narahari, State President of TGDA, speaking to Telangana Today. He pointed out that the state’s move to establish 25 new government medical colleges in recent years has further strained the already stretched pool of senior faculty.
The TGDA argues that allowing transfers to fill existing vacancies would enhance staffing levels at critical institutions without imposing additional financial burdens on the government.
In their appeal, TGDA officials highlighted that the current allocation of senior medical staff fails to serve its intended purpose — weakening both healthcare delivery and postgraduate education at the institutions most in need.
