Telangana medical colleges face severe cadaver shortage crisis

Government medical colleges in Telangana are facing a critical shortage of cadavers, hampering anatomy education and surgical training. Despite guidelines and body donation rules, limited resources and legal concerns are affecting students' access to hands-on learning experiences.

Hyderabad: Government medical colleges in Telangana are grappling with severe shortage of cadavers, a critical resource fundamental to learning anatomy and providing hands-on surgical training for future doctors. The scarcity of cadavers is severely affecting the quality of medical education, as practical dissection plays a key role in learning anatomy and physiology practically, senior doctors said.

Based on guidelines of National Medical Commission (NMC), there should ideally be one cadaver for at least 10 to 15 MBBS students. However, all the State-run tertiary medical colleges here collectively provide only two to three bodies for hundreds of students.

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Senior government doctors said the solution for the difficulty in acquiring cadavers is to upgrade the facilities.

“Medical colleges must be upgraded by acquiring virtual cadaver tables like 3D Anatomage, mannequin stations, virtual reality anatomy and plastinated models. While 3D models can’t take the place of actual cadavers, but still due to present advancement in technology, they are alternatives,” says senior pediatrician and president of Telangana Government Doctors Association (TSDCA), Dr B Narahari.

Senior doctors also pointed out the need for awareness in voluntary body donations for academic purposes.

“There is a need to take-up awareness and donation drives, which could address these issues,” the senior doctor said.

The previous BRS government had framed Telangana Pathology and Anatomy Rules, 2022, which permits medical institutions to claim unclaimed bodies.

Based on these rules, the body of the deceased will be considered to be unclaimed, if the same is not claimed by relatives within a period of 12 hours of the death. Such a body can be claimed by a medical institution. “A body handed over to an approved institution may be claimed by a near relative of the deceased within a period of 96 hours of death,” the rules said.

Senior doctors, however, noted that significant challenges persist in implementing these rules, as there is always a probability of legal challenges if a relative of the deceased later comes forward and claims the body.