HYDERABAD: The State branch of Indian Medical Association has called for increasing the membership of Andhra Pradesh in the Medical Council of India (MCI) from two to at least 15 by amending the relevant act.

R. Jayachandra Reddy, past national president, N. Appa Rao, national coordinator, and V. Sharat Kumar, chairman of the Andhra Pradesh State Action Committee, told a press conference here on Tuesday that rules should be amended to include a member for every 5,000 registered medical practitioners.

They said there were 65,000 practitioners in the State. There were less than 10 members from the South on MCI although half of the medical colleges in the country were located in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Professor posts

Referring to Health Minister K. Rosaiah's recent statement that 330 of the 550 professor posts in Government hospitals and medical colleges were vacant, they suggested a committee be constituted for teaching in all hospitals. There was almost a 50 per cent shortage of teachers in 10 medical colleges, as more than 700 of about 1,500 posts were vacant.

For instance, all 75 cardiology posts were vacant. Similarly, no candidates were available to fill professor posts in anatomy, forensic medicine and other subjects.The expansion of medical colleges coupled with payment of higher salaries by private colleges were cited as main factors for shortage. On the issue of OBC reservation in medical colleges, they said Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala IMA branches met recently at Chennai and resolved they were not against the policy.

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