Centre considers faculty sharing to tackle medical teachers' shortage

The Union health ministry is open to faculty sharing between medical colleges to address the faculty shortage as it prepares a roadmap for adding 10,000 new medical seats in 2025-26.

 

The ministry is assessing the faculty shortage, modernising the curriculum, ensuring the affordability of medical education, and expanding postgraduate (PG) and specialisation courses. Union Health Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava said several experts had recommended expanding the faculty pool by permitting the sharing of faculty between medical colleges, particularly in non-clinical subjects.

 

It is looking to convene a stakeholder consultation to finalise a roadmap for meeting faculty requirements and development in May this year. To enhance the medical education infrastructure, the ministry will also aim to map existing undergraduate (UG), PG, and super-speciality course seats in government medical colleges and strengthen a public-private partnership (PPP) model.

 

Srivastava said they will also assess potential facilities to start Diplomate of National Board (DNB) courses and identify private hospitals to start standalone PG institutes by September 2025. “A shift to Competency-Based Medical Education (CBME) has also been recommended to focus on practical skills and patient-centric care,” she added.

 

The health ministry is also chalking out a deadline-bound implementation plan for establishing 200 daycare cancer centres (DCCCs) and adding 10,000 medical seats in 2025-26.

 

The Centre plans to add 75,000 new medical seats in five years, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the announcement last year as part of the government’s move to augment the country’s healthcare infrastructure. In her Budget announcement, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said 200 cancer day care centres will be added by FY26 to ensure that cancer treatment becomes more accessible to people in the country.

 

“Around 13,000 medical seats have been added in FY25, and we will be adding 10,000 seats this year,” Health Minister JP Nadda said on Wednesday in a webinar held to discuss possible pathways to implement health-related Budget announcements.

 

The government is also aiming to establish DCCCs in all district hospitals in the next three years, of which 200 are set to be opened in FY26, to strengthen cancer care. While the ministry has identified manpower shortages, lack of training, and no referral system between different strata of health centres, it is aiming to start by commissioning a gap analysis and surveys to identify high-need areas for DCCC implementation by April 2025.

 

“The ministry is looking to leverage PPPs for expertise, resources, equipment, training and financial sustainability of DCCC,” said the health secretary.   

In The Pipeline

For addition of medical seats: 

May 2025: Stakeholder consultations to finalise roadmap to meet faculty requirements

June 2025:  Mapping existing seats to assess potential of expansion

September 2025: Identification of hospitals to start standalone PG institutions; Development of faculty development programme

For daycare cancer centres: 

April 2025:  Gap analysis and site selection to evaluate high need areas

September 2025: Strengthening infra at selected facilities; Staff recruitment, training and implementation of telemedicine capabilities