VIJAYAWADA: In a bid to enhance clinical training and curb severe staff shortages, Health Minister Y Satya Kumar Yadav on Thursday announced that the State government is actively exploring a proposal to raise the retirement age of medical professors in government institutions.
Chairing a rigorous three-hour fiscal and academic review meeting at the State Secretariat, he directed Director of Medical Education (DME) Dr Vishnuvardhan to immediately draft a blueprint regarding the age extension.
The Minister expressed deep concern over the massive vacancies hampering state-run institutions. Out of nearly 800 sanctioned professor posts across 17 government medical colleges, 200 remain vacant. The crisis is severe across 16 super-speciality wings, which are crippled by a 66 per cent staff deficit—holding 106 vacant slots out of 159 positions.
Yadav pointed out that while National Medical Commission (NMC) tie three PG seats to a single professor, private medical colleges are pocketing a higher share of PG quotas because professors can legally practice up to 70 years of age.
Due to a severe lack of promotion-eligible candidates within the department, extending the retirement age has become a vital structural remedy to prevent AP from losing precious PG medical seats.
The Health Minister laid down a target for officials to advance at least five of the state’s oldest government medical colleges into the national Top 100 institutional rankings. He pulled up Dr NTR University of Health Sciences over reports of certain private colleges cornering high seat counts despite lacking adequate teaching infrastructure.
Yadav directed university teams to carry out surprise inspections, enforce rectifications strictly under NMC guidelines, and submit periodic enforcement reports. Over the past two years, the government has added 230 MBBS and 250 PG seats in the state.
He mandated that the statutory 75 per cent attendance rule for annual exams must be followed without exceptions by principals and department heads. He ordered the immediate setup of an integrated online attendance tracking system to replace the current faulty tracking mechanism.
The Minister told university administrators to ensure zero laxity in ‘bedside education’ and focus on building ethical medical values.
Reviewing first-quarter expenditure for 2026-27, the Minister expressed dissatisfaction over the low utilisation of Central assistance, with only Rs 357 crore of the proposed Rs 2,308 crore spent. He directed officials to resolve procedural delays, accelerate works with APSMIDC and ensure at least 50% utilisation of both budgetary allocations and Central funds by September.
