K Chandrasekhar Hyderabad

Healthcareexperts have raised concerns over the sanctioning of new postgraduate (PG) medical seats in the State without providing the necessary infrastructure. They have warned that excellence in postgraduate education cannot be achieved amid inadequate facilities and faculty shortages.

According to government figures, there are approximately 1,456 to 1,504 PG seats in the government sector, while the private sector accounts for over 2,450 seats. In an alleged attempt to increase opportunities for local students, the government has been increasing PG seats without ensuring the availability of the required infrastructure.

Citing an example, doctors said 14 new MD Radiodiagnosis seats had been sanctioned, of which 12 were in colleges lacking basic radiology equipment, including MRI machines. They questioned how postgraduate students could receive adequate training without access to essential equipment required for hands-on experience.

National President of the Federation of All India Medical Associations (FAIMA) Dr D Srinath said college administrations were taking pride in securing new PG seats despite being fully aware of the ground realities and limitations of their existing infrastructure.

He said institutions knew that excellence in postgraduate medical education could not be achieved with inadequate facilities and faculty shortages. Yet, under pressure and in the race to compete with other medical colleges, they continued to prioritise increasing seats over improving educational standards.

"This unhealthy competition is turning medical education in Telangana into a joke. Quality medical education should be the priority, not merely the number of PG seats," he said. Dr Chandrakanth Reddy Narahari of the Telangana Junior Doctors Association (TJDA) said college administrations could not simply celebrate obtaining additional PG seats while ignoring the ground realities of their institutions.

"We strongly condemn this unhealthy approach of prioritising PG and UG seat expansion over the basic standards of medical education," he said.

He pointed out that PG seats were not trophies to be collected or achievements to be celebrated at the cost of educational standards. The responsibility of an institution was not merely to secure more seats but to ensure that every postgraduate student received the necessary infrastructure, faculty support, clinical exposure and academic environment to become a competent specialist.

Medical education was a responsibility and not a race for statistics, he said, stressing that quality must come before quantity.

Healthcare Reforms Doctors Association president Dr N Karthik said taking pride in increasing MD/MS PG seats without providing the necessary infrastructure was like opening an engineering college without laboratories, appointing surgeons without operation theatres or establishing a flight training academy without aircraft.

"Seats alone do not create specialists; infrastructure, clinical exposure and hands-on training do. How can we expect MD Radiodiagnosis students to acquire the required competencies when their teaching institutions do not even have basic diagnostic facilities like MRI machines?" he questioned.