Infrastructure, faculty shortages loom as Telangana welcomes more medical colleges

Hyderabad: While having an adequate number of medical colleges is a boon for any state, sanctioning an excess number of medical colleges, without taking into account the necessary infrastructure and faculty for teaching students can be counter-productive and a waste of resources.

As per the current statistics, it seems Telangana has been witnessing the mushrooming of medical colleges in recent years without supportive infrastructure and manpower.

17 medical colleges added in last two years

In 2014, at the time of state bifurcation, when the new State of Telangana was carved out of Andhra Pradesh, there were just five medical colleges in Telangana. During the first tenure of the then chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, four more medical colleges were added at Suryapet, Siddipet, Nalgonda and Mahabubnagar taking the total number to nine.

In the last two years, between 2022 and 2023, eight and nine colleges were approved and added respectively. The state now has 26 government-run medical colleges in its 33 districts. In 2024, eight more colleges have been proposed out of which five may be sanctioned by the new government.

As per the norms of the National Medical Commission (NMC), to give clinical exposure to medicos, medical colleges with 100 MBBS seats, must be attached to a hospital with at least 300 beds.

New students each year, hostel facilities remain inadequate

Explaining the fallouts of having too many medical colleges without proper planning, Dr B Narahari, professor of Paediatrics at Nagarkurnool Medical College and member of Telangana Government Doctors’ Association (TGGDA) averred, “In the last couple of years, several medical colleges got sanctioned and were started. However, it is causing practical problems related to hostels and teaching hospitals. For now, some medical colleges have hostels being constructed adjacent to the institute, others have hostels situated far from the college and in some cases. Without proper and adequate hostel facilities, many students have to stay in rented accommodation. The problem is going to worsen because every year 130 new students will be added to the medical colleges, which just started in 2022 and 2023.”

Around 40% of faculty shortage

Apart from hostels, a lack of adequate faculty is another problem of the excess number of medical colleges.

Dr Narahari added, “Most of the old faculty members are retiring by June 2026 (after enhancement of retirement age to 65 years) and there is already a faculty deficit of around 40 per cent. New recruitment of teaching doctors is not happening and given the number of medical colleges, recruitment has to be fast-paced and proportional to the number of colleges and requirements.”

Teaching hospitals’ infrastructure poses a question mark

The third major drawback of mushrooming medical colleges (with 100-110 seats each) is its inability to sustain hospitals with 300-330 bed strength due to poor infrastructure. Elaborating on it, Dr Narahari said, “Though the foundation stone was laid, none of the new teaching hospital buildings have come up. What is happening is some teaching hospitals are being accommodated in old AP Vaidya Vidhana Parishad (APVVP) buildings, which have an original capacity of 100 beds and consist of one or two storeys. Building more storeys on the existing first floor to convert these into 300/330-bed hospitals using prefabricated technology is not a wise move as these existing one or two-story structures are not strong enough and stand at the risk of crumbling.”

“Likewise, more manpower including staff nurses, ward boys and more equipment and space will be required for additional beds and new teaching hospitals, which is lacking. Therefore, unless proper hospitals are constructed and infrastructure provided, unplanned and needless addition of medical colleges will only add to the woes,” stated the doctor.

Committee to look into need for more medical colleges

As government doctors from Teaching Telangana Government Doctors’ Association (TTGDA) and Telangana Government Doctors’ Association (TGGDA) raised these pertinent issues related to excess medical colleges, the State Government has given assurance of constructing a committee to look into the practical consideration for constructing the upcoming medical colleges in all the districts, rectifying infrastructural defects and ensuring adequate faculty for the existing and upcoming medical colleges.

Table

Top 10 states with maximum medical colleges in 2023-2024

Tamil Nadu (38 government & 36 private medical colleges) – 74

Karnataka (24 government & 46 private medical colleges) – 70

Maharashtra (32 government & 36 private medical colleges) – 68

Uttar Pradesh (35 government & 33 private medical colleges) – 68

Telangana (28 government including AIIMS and ESI & 28 private medical colleges) – 56

Andhra Pradesh (18 government & 19 private medical colleges) – 37

Gujarat (23 government & 17 private medical colleges) – 40

Kerala (12 government & 21 private medical colleges) – 33

Rajasthan (26 government & 9 private medical colleges) – 35

West Bengal (26 government & 9 private medical colleges) – 35