Delay in government recruitment pushing doctors to corporate hospitals

Telangana’s government hospitals are struggling to retain doctors trained in public institutions as recruitment delays stretch up to a year. Medical associations warn that corporate hospitals are quickly hiring specialists, contributing to a growing shortage of doctors in government facilities.

Hyderabad: Every year, roughly 1,500 talented and experienced medical postgraduates, capable of working as doctors right from day one of their appointment in any government hospital in Telangana, are produced by government teaching hospitals. And yet, the State government is failing to retain the talent, effectively making the taxpayer-funded government hospitals a training ground for corporate hospitals of Hyderabad.

The HR wings of the corporate hospitals conclude the entire recruitment cycle of a fresh resident doctor, who has learnt his trade in a government teaching hospital, within a month. In contrast, according to resident doctors, the recruitment process for government hospitals for permanent roles currently stretches between 6 months and a year and even beyond.

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“For a young specialist doctor who has just completed his gruelling residency in a government teaching hospital, a gap of more than 6 months is a dead zone. A specialist cannot remain unemployed for half a year waiting for a government notification,” rues a senior office bearer of Healthcare Reforms Doctors Association (HRDA).

By the time the Telangana Medical and Health Services Recruitment Board (MHSRB) releases a selection list, the top-tier talent of young doctors has already signed lucrative contracts with corporate hospital chains in Banjara Hills and Gachibowli.

The issue is compounded by the way the recruitment is sequenced. The State government appears to be prioritising recruitment of Civil Assistant Surgeons in secondary hospitals in districts that fall under the jurisdiction of Telangana Vaidya Vidhan Parishad (TVVP) over Assistant Professors posts that fall under all tertiary teaching hospitals under Directorate of Medical Education (DME).

“If a doctor is selected for a district hospital (TVVP) today, but a teaching post (DME) opens up two months later, they will inevitably resign from the rural post to join the teaching hospital. This is creating a cycle of ghost vacancies that look filled on paper but are vacated within weeks, leaving rural hospitals understaffed,” senior doctors said.

To control the ‘brain drain’, associations representing doctors, junior doctors, public health specialists and senior residents in Telangana have urged the State government on multiple occasions to establish an annual recruitment calendar. Without a predictable bridge from graduation to employment, the State government will continue to spend crores training specialists, only to hand them over to the private sector on a silver platter, public health specialists said.

Government hospitals are training grounds for young doctors for private hospitals

It takes anywhere from 6 months to a year, and even more for permanent recruitment

By that time, talented doctors are poached by corporate hospitals through lucrative deals

62 per cent of teaching posts in government hospitals in Telangana are vacant

At present, 607 Assistant Professors are being recruited

The total doctor vacancy in government hospitals in Telangana is 5,625

The current pace of recruitment/regularisation is 250 to 300 doctors per year

At this rate of recruitment, it will take 12 years to fill all vacant posts

Overall, 3,000 postgraduates are produced every year in Telangana

Roughly 1,500 postgraduates are from the government hospitals