The Medical Council of India (MCI) has sought the opinion of state government of Telangana to increase the retirement age of faculty in medical colleges up to 70 years. However, sources said that the state health ministry is expected to come up with a proposal to increase it up to 65 years.  “MCI has sought the government’s opinion on increasing the retirement age of faculty in medical colleges. We are studying the pros and cons of increasing the retirement age of the faculty. After detailed discussion we will come up with a final decision which will be announced soon,” said a senior officer from the health department.

At present the current retirement age of teaching faculty in medical colleges is 58 years, and as many as 400 doctors and teaching professors are expected to get retired by the end of 2017. This would create a big void for the teaching faculty in medical colleges as the state government has not appointed new teaching faculty in the medical colleges. “Already there is a shortage of faculty in medical colleges; with more doctors and professors getting retired it will further hit the medical education in the state. Therefore the government should either increase the retirement age as proposed by the MCI or should recruit adequate number of teaching faculty in the medical colleges to save the medical education in the state,” observed Dr Kukashekar Rao, a retired professor from ophthalmology department at Gandhi Hospital.

Already about 176 doctors and teaching faculty have retired during the year 2016 and if the state government further ignores the issue it may adversely impact on the medical education in the state.

In all the 5 government medical colleges of Osmania, Gandhi, Mahabubnagar,  Nizamabad and Kakatiya, there are about 2,500 faculty members working as professors, associate professors, assistant professors and tutors. According to data with the director of health and medical education, two professors are retiring every month. There is no professor for anatomy, pharmacology, anaesthesia, general medicine and physiology in Osmania, Kakatiya and Nizamabad Medical Colleges.

Associate professors have been made in-charge professors and are teaching at the colleges and monitoring at the hospitals. A senior associate professor said, “We have been made in-charge professors and given the work of professors. To qualify as a professor we need to do research and submit the thesis which must be accepted and published in a medical journal. This procedure has to be followed strictly but that is not the case now.”

Keeping all this in view, the state government is in favour of increasing the age to 62 or 65. “Before sending our proposal to MCI we are holding discussions with all stake holders and weighing on pros and cons. Few persons have also raised concerns that existing junior staff may lose promotions if the retirement age is increased. So we will take a final call only after a detailed analysis,” informed Dr. C. Laxma Reddy, Minister for Health and Family welfare, Government of Telangana.