14 govt. medical colleges in T.N. are functioning without regular deans

14 govt. medical colleges in T.N. are functioning without regular deans

Manpower shortage: In August, the Health Minister said the process of preparing a panel of 26 deans was under way.FILE PHOTO

Government doctors say having senior professors hold the post with full additional charge won’t help, as they would be reluctant to take initiatives in a temporary posting; vacancies at top level will also have a cascading effect on other posts

The Hindu Bureau

CHENNAI 01.10.2024 

A total of 14 government medical colleges across the State are yet to get regular deans. Though the institutions are running with senior professors holding the post with full additional charge (FAC), the delay in posting deans affects medical colleges in more than one way, say government doctors.

The government medical colleges in Chengalpattu, Vellore, Kallakurichi, Salem, Erode, Tiruchi, Madurai, Virudhunagar, Theni, Ramanathapuram, Pudukkottai, Karur, Kanniyakumari, and the Kilpauk Medical College in Chennai are functioning without regular deans. Among these are institutions where the deans retired during March and April.

When The Hindu highlighted the issue on August 16 [‘Dean post remains vacant in a number of government medical colleges in the State’], health officials said the list (panel) of candidates had been sent to the government and a decision is awaited.

Health Minister Ma. Subramanian, on August 29, told reporters that they were in the process of preparing a panel of 26 deans and it would be completed in a few days. He also announced that counselling would be held for deans.

K. Senthil, president of Tamil Nadu Government Doctors Association, said that they represented the issue two to three times in the last few months, through letters and in-person meetings, but nothing has transpired so far. “The Health Department should have prepared the panel [list of eligible candidates] before the vacancies arose. If the panel was prepared at least by April or May, the posts could have been filled from the list as and when vacancies arose in the institutions. Now, litigations have surfaced. The present situation is unwarranted as the department had sufficient time. The government seems to have missed an important step,” he said. He added that though the 14 government medical colleges were running with in-charge deans, the administrators could not match regular deans.

“Holding FAC is only a stop-gap arrangement. They will be able to manage day-to-day issues but will not be proactive and send proposals for initiatives as they know they will be replaced eventually. Regular deans should be posted at the earliest,” Dr. Senthil said. A. Ramalingam, general secretary, Service Doctors and Post Graduates Association said that if higher-level posts such as deans are not filled through regular promotions and kept vacant, it would have a cascading effect on other posts.