The Kerala Government Medical College Teachers’ Association (KGMCTA) has welcomed Health Minister Veena George’s announcement that new faculty posts will be created to overcome the shortage of faculty members that resulted in the National Medical Commission refusing to grant recognition to the MBBS course in Alappuzha Government Medical College and a few postgraduate courses in other medical colleges .
The KGMCTA on Friday pointed out that the acute shortage of faculty and senior residents in the Alappuzha, Konni, Idukki, and Palakkad medical colleges had been flagged by the organisation much earlier and that the government had been requested to take necessary measures to rectify the situation. At least now, the proposed increase in faculty should remain on paper alone, the KGMCTA said.
It said that the appointment of Assistant Professors in the entry cadre was something that the government needed to take up on a war footing. Over 200 posts of Assistant Professors have been lying vacant in various departments.
The new medical colleges in Manjeri, Kollam, Idukki and Konni were still in the nascent stage and were plagued by the shortage of faculty, residents, nurses, paramedical staff, infrastructure deficiencies and lack of super-specialty. Tertiary care-level services in the true sense are impossible in these institutions at present.
The KGMCTA said that the doctors working here within severe limitations should not be pressured to provide high-end care as in older medical colleges.
