Kerala Medical College Faculty observe black day over pay, staffing woes

Thiruvananthapuram: In protest against the government’s failure to address faculty and infrastructure shortages, heavy workload, and delayed pay revisions, faculty from various government medical colleges under the Kerala Government Medical College Teachers’ Association (KGMCTA) are observing a ‘Black Day’ today.

The association has blamed the government’s policies for disrupting the functioning of medical colleges in Kerala. In response, KGMCTA has planned demonstrations in front of all government medical colleges and the Directorate of Medical Education (DME) office on September 23. It has also warned that teaching and outpatient (OP) services may be boycotted if their demands are not met.

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The protest comes amid severe staff and infrastructure shortages at Konni and Idukki medical colleges, which have placed doctors under immense pressure. Additionally, temporary transfers of teachers between colleges have adversely affected both teaching and patient care across the state, the association said.

KGMCTA raised concerns over faculty shortages, inadequate infrastructure, temporary teacher transfers, heavy workloads, and delayed pay revisions. According to the association, the staff shortage has created a significant gap between the student-teacher ratio and the number of doctors, affecting both teaching and patient care.

To bridge the gap, the association has demanded the creation of sufficient faculty posts in Kasaragod, Wayanad, Idukki, and Konni medical colleges as per National Medical Commission norms, additional posts in all medical colleges against the patient load, improved infrastructure and equipment to meet NMC standards, correction of pay anomalies at entry level, immediate disbursal of arrears and resolution of other salary issues, as per Onmanorama media report.

KGMCTA also pointed out that the low salaries for entry-level assistant professors discourage young doctors from joining or continuing in the profession, describing the pay as “unreasonably low.”

"There is a huge gap between the student-teacher ratio and the number of doctors required to manage the patient overload in medical colleges, which is well known to both the DME and the government. Temporary group transfers, described as short-term measures, have become routine, disrupting postgraduate teaching and patient care. Despite repeated representations, the government has failed to act, leaving us with no choice but to proceed with these protest programmes," the KGMCTA leaders said.

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