Rattled by the acute shortage of medical teachers required for existing and new teaching hospitals across the country the ministry of health has decided to utilise retired professors, associate and assistant professors of Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS) to meet up the crisis across states.

On 17 June, Amit Biswas, under-secretary of the health ministry, has written a letter to the Medical Council of India (MCI) secretary Reena Nair seeking a list of superannuated medical teachers in different departments such as anaesthesiology, biochemistry, medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, radiology, etc in AFMS. The move is to fill up the vacant posts lying in medical colleges in states and Union Territories, the letter states.

Sources in the ministry said that the AFMS has already submitted a list of around 200 retired teaching doctors to the MCI, sole body that monitors medical education system in nearly 500 teaching hospitals in the country.

Brigadier Shivinder Singh of the AFMS has sent the list to the council, it is learnt. “I am a retired medical teacher in anaesthesiology and critical care in different command hospitals in Delhi, Lucknow, Pune etc. I have got a mail in this regard and will consider if I am offered a chance to use my expertise in medical colleges,” said Dr Subhashis Chakraborty who is now associated with a private hospital in Gurgaon.

According to a senior official in the health department at Swasthya Bhaban, “Bengal is facing an acute shortage of teaching doctors at a time when nine more new medical colleges are supposed to come up in the state to produce more physicians.”

“There has been a minimum shortfall of around 2000 medical teachers required for existing 13 and nine new government medical colleges in the state,” he said requesting anonymity.

Nine new medical colleges are supposed to come up inside the district and sub-divisional hospitals’ premises at Cooch Behar, Darjeeling, Raiganj, Jalpaiguri, Rampurhat, Purulia, Diamond Harbour, Tamluk and Nadia.During the recent meeting held at the state secretariat Nabanna with the representatives of the striking junior doctors the chief minister Miss Mamata Banerjee who holds the health portfolio discussed the issue of inadequate number of medical practitioners in public healthcare services.

Bengal requires at least 6,000 doctors, including medical teachers, to meet up the demand of teaching and nonteaching staff in hospitals.

In a bid to cope with the crisis the health department has decided to hire specialist doctors from private healthcare institutes to run outdoor patients department clinics in government hospitals. Many doctors attached with private hospitals and nursing homes have already started attending to OPDs in several public healthcare services. They specialist doctors will get around Rs 1200 hours for giving services to patients at the OPDs for thrice a week.