Several posts of professors at the paediatrics department of Nalanda Medical College and Hospital (NMCH) are lying vacant for a long time leading to faculty crunch.

Of the three posts of professors in the paediatrics department, only one is serving. Dr Arun Kumar Thakur, who is also the head of the department, will retire in December 2014. The problem is same with the posts of associate professors and assistant professors. Three out of four posts of associate professors are lying vacant. Three out of nine posts of assistant professors are vacant, too.

Thakur said: “If the health department had given regular promotions, this situation would not have arisen. There would have been no dearth of faculty if promotions were given on time. According to MCI rules, an assistant professor is liable to be appointed as associate professor after five years of service. An associate professor is liable to be appointed to the post of professor after four years. Even, in some cases where promotions were given, it has been done so without job posting.”

Apart from professors, several posts of teachers and residents at the paediatrics department of the NMCH are lying vacant.

Medical Council of India (MCI) has pointed this out several times during its inspection of the college.

An NMCH doctor said: “Neither the health department is increasing the retirement age of medical college teachers from the current 65 years nor is it giving promotions on time. This has compounded the problem of paucity of faculty in the medical college.”

The health department’s move to counter the problem of lack of faculty by appointing contract doctors after retirements has few takers. Though, walk-in-interviews have been done to appoint retired doctors on contract basis, they are not willing to join. An NMCH doctor reasoned this saying: “The retired doctors are not interested in joining the service as they don’t want to work under their juniors. Second, if they work on contract basis in private hospitals, they can earn more than what they get in the government ones.”

NMCH principal, Shivkumari Prasad, said: “A few days back I had a meeting with health secretary Anand Kishore during which the issue of faculty crunch was discussed. The secretary assured us that the government is aware of the matter and actions will be taken soon to solve the issue.”

The health secretary couldn’t be contacted despite several attempts.

The situation is similar in the department concerned in most of state medical college and hospitals. Two out of the three posts of professors at Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) are lying vacant, while in Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH), Muzaffarpur, the only serving professor will retire this month.

At present, there are no professors posted in the paediatrics departments of Darbhanga, Gaya and Bettiah medical colleges. Darbhanga Medical College has two sanctioned posts of professors, while Gaya and Bettiah Medical Colleges have one post each.