Health Department to Appoint Group-I Officers to Manage New Tims Hospitals
Officials said the move is aimed at improving hospital administration, ambience, and overall efficiency.
Hyderabad: The health department is planning to appoint Group-I officers to manage non-medical and administrative functions at the upcoming Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (Tims) hospitals to allow doctors to focus on clinical duties. The Tims facility at Sanathnagar is expected to open within a month.
Originally proposed for all government hospitals, the plan now includes revising job charts to clearly delineate responsibilities between medical and non-medical personnel. Officials said the move is aimed at improving hospital administration, ambience, and overall efficiency.
A senior health department official said that the initiative sought to strengthen both the branding and functioning of government hospitals. “Group-I officers exist in the system, but their roles have not been fully utilised. For instance, at the Dr Marri Channa Reddy Human Resource Development Institute, the job chart mentions a lay secretary or administrative officer (AO) — a Group-I officer — but they are largely confined to salary-related work. Now, they will be assigned their actual administrative responsibilities,” the official said.
A team of senior officials, including former hospital superintendents, visited leading corporate hospitals to study their management systems. They discussed their observations with health minister Damodar Rajanarsimha and visited the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (Nims) to explore how similar standards could be adopted in TIMS hospitals.
During their study, officials observed that corporate hospitals maintain efficiency and quality through dedicated service managers for each department — including security, sanitation, engineering, and ambulance operations. “We found that effective hospital functioning depends 60 per cent on non-medical management and 40 per cent on medical duties,” an official noted.
Plans are also underway to make Tims hospitals digitally integrated, enhancing patient experience in outpatient blocks, waiting halls, and washrooms.
Some doctors expressed reservations about the move, arguing that medical institutions function best under the leadership of medical professionals. They stressed that timely budget allocation and resource management are more crucial to improving hospital performance.
Dr Kiran Madhala, secretary-general of the Telangana Teaching Government Doctors Association, said, “Top national institutes like AIIMS and PGIMER are led by doctors. We understand hospital needs — both medical and administrative. My simple point is: if supervisors and decision-makers are needed, why not doctors?”
Officials clarified that one of the main reasons for involving Group-I officers is that during emergencies, doctors may not always be available to handle full administrative responsibilities.
