AP to fill 8000 vacant posts in Govt Medical Colleges
Faculty Shortage
Vijayawada: In a bid to address the severe shortage of healthcare professionals, the Andhra Pradesh government has decided to fill nearly 8,000 vacancies across various categories in the next few months. This move aims to improve the quality of healthcare delivery and ensure adequate staffing in hospitals across the state.
The focus will primarily be on filling vacancies for specialist doctors in teaching hospitals, which have been grappling with a severe faculty shortage. Chief Minister, Chandrababu Naidu, issued directives to various departments, prompting them to submit detailed reports on the vacancy situation. Following this directive, the Director of medical education (DME), director of health (DH), director of secondary health, commissioner of Ayush, and director of the National Health Mission Project (NHM) have submitted detailed reports on vacancy positions in their respective wings.
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As per the recent media report by TOI, after analyzing reports, the govt found that about 3,114 professors, associate professors, and assistant professor posts were lying vacant in different govt medical colleges across the state. Curiously, the posts of paramedical, nurse, technician, and other category posts were vacant in huge numbers against the sanctioned strength.
According to the report submitted by the DME, approximately 1,484 faculty positions out of a total of 5,749 in teaching hospitals are unfilled, representing around 25% of the sanctioned strength. The shortage is particularly critical in super-speciality departments, where the authorities are struggling to find senior-level professionals. Despite several recruitment notifications, there has been a poor response, as super-specialists are often reluctant to take up assignments in government medical colleges.
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The shortage is not limited to medical colleges in rural areas but is also prevalent in large cities. For instance, the Government General Hospital in Vijayawada had around 46 vacant posts, while Guntur Medical College (GMC) faced a shortage of about 65 positions. Among these, 14 posts were vacant in crucial clinical departments, 19 in non-clinical departments, and 38 in super-specialty wings. This includes 17 professor-level posts, along with 10 associate and assistant professor positions, all of which remain unfilled at GMC.
