Faculty shortfall at ESIC Basaidarapur- No professors in anatomy, physiology, biochemistry: RTI
Faculty Shortage
New Delhi: The ESIC Medical College at ESIC Model Hospital and PGIMSR, Basaidarapur, which admitted its first MBBS batch in 2025, is functioning with only 15 faculty members against the 20 posts required under mandated norms, according to a Right to Information (RTI) reply.
As per the RTI response shared by ESIC Hospital in February 2026, the college is running its three main pre-clinical departments - anatomy, physiology and biochemistry, with only one associate and three assistant professors.
The response reportedly further revealed that the associate and assistant professors are not permanent appointees but are working on a contractual basis. More concerning, however, is the fact that all three key departments are functioning without a single professor.
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The faculty shortage comes at a time when the institute has just begun its MBBS programme and is in its foundation year. The medical college is part of a national push by the Employees' State Insurance Corporation to expand medical education and healthcare delivery across the country.
As per a latest media report by TOI, the RTI showed a department-wise breakdown highlighting the gaps in the three departments- anatomy, physiology and biochemistry.
The anatomy department currently has two assistant professors and four tutors, but no professor, associate professor or senior resident. In physiology, there is one associate professor and one assistant professor, both on contract, along with three tutors. However, the department has no professor or senior resident. Biochemistry appears even more understaffed, with only two tutors and two senior residents in place, and no professor, associate professor or assistant professor at all.
Information accessed through the Right to Information (RTI) Act shows that the three pre-clinical departments together should have 20 faculty and resident posts as per Parliament-mandated norms. This includes three professors, three associate professors, four assistant professors, seven tutors or demonstrators, and three senior residents.
However, the college currently has no professors at all, only one associate professor and three assistant professors, with most of them appointed on a contractual basis.
According to the RTI response, the undergraduate boys’ hostel has only seven rooms, while the girls’ hostel has just two. Even with this limited space, 27 first-year MBBS students from the 2025–26 batch were allotted hostel accommodation.
Not only is the institute reeling under a faculty shortage, but the teaching facilities are also limited. The anatomy department has only three cadavers for undergraduate training. Although the institute said that the physiology and biochemistry laboratories are functional, medical education experts point out that the absence of professors and senior faculty in pre-clinical subjects affects academic supervision during the crucial foundation phase of the MBBS course.
A senior academician said, "Pre-clinical departments form the academic base of an MBBS course. Running them without professors weakens training at the very first stage."
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that as many as 27 departments in government medical colleges across Telangana are allegedly functioning without a single teaching faculty member, while over 150 departments do not have any senior faculty and are being run by junior doctors, according to a recent survey conducted by a doctor's body.
The Telangana Senior Resident Doctors Association (TSRDA) survey on faculty strength, carried out in the last week of January 2026, highlighted a serious shortage of teaching staff, especially senior faculty (Professors and Associate Professors). The findings raised concerns about the quality of medical education and compliance with National Medical Commission (NMC) norms.
