KOHIMA, 8 Jul: Nagaland is facing a shortage of local specialist doctors to take up faculty posts in the two newly created medical colleges in the state which will start functioning from next year, a top health department official said.
Health Director Dr Visasieu Kire revealed this during the 24th general conference of the Nagaland Medical Students’ Association (NMSA) held at the ATI complex here on the theme ‘Learn to serve humanity’.
The state currently has 196 specialists, regular in-service doctors in various clinical and managerial posts, but according to the Indian Public Health Standards-2012, the state has shortage of specialists even for district hospitals and health units.
Without revealing the actual shortage, Kire said the requirement for specialists will increase with the establishment of two medical colleges, one each in Kohima and Mon districts, for teaching faculty and senior residents.
“Each medical college will require at least 88 faculty for 22 different departments on the first year of commencement, which will increase
further and MBBS alone will not qualify to be a faculty of medical college,” she said.
Kire informed that the first medical college in Kohima will start functioning by next year, for which the letter of permit will be processed by October, “but it will be difficult to fill the 88 faculty posts like professor and associate professor.”
Lamenting that the state has no takers for preclinical studies, she said that, as youngsters in MBBS, this is the right time for them to make the mind and start the preclinical studies and also publish journals to have entry into the medical college faculty.
“It is our medical college and we should try to enter as its faculty,” she said. (PTI)
