Doctors Urge Telangana to Lift Transfer Ban

Hyderabad: Amid a growing faculty crunch in major government medical colleges across Telangana, the state unit of the Telangana Government Doctors Association (TGGDA) has written to health minister Damodar Rajnarsimha urging immediate relaxation of the ongoing ban on transfers for professor-level posts. The association has also sought urgent steps to fill vacant professor posts in four key institutions — Osmania Medical College, Gandhi Medical College, Kakatiya Medical College, and Government Medical College Nizamabad — by allowing transfers of eligible senior faculty members.

In the representations submitted on Wednesday, the association pointed out that the transfer ban was hampering the academic and healthcare capacities of the state’s top medical colleges. “Several sanctioned professor posts are lying vacant despite the availability of experienced faculty in the periphery who are willing and eligible to be transferred,” the association noted in its letter.

TGGDA stated that these vacancies are impacting both postgraduate medical education and patient care. “The shortage of senior faculty is causing a direct strain on academic supervision and service delivery in these premier institutions,” the letter said.

Calling for administrative intervention, the association argued that allowing transfers into these existing posts would not place any additional financial burden on the government, as the vacancies are already sanctioned. It further added that such a move would help decentralise faculty strength more equitably and reduce the load on doctors currently handling both teaching and service responsibilities without adequate support.

“This measure not only strengthens the academic framework of these institutions but also significantly enhances healthcare services to the public,” said Dr B. Narahari, association president, in the letter co-signed by secretary-general Dr Lalu Prasad Rathod and treasurer Dr Mohd Khaja Raufudin.