Shillong: A faculty shortage has delayed the launch of the first academic session at Tura Medical College, which is nearly 95% complete.The state govt has not yet finalised the launch date because the college lacks adequate qualified staff.Joram Beda, commissioner and secretary of the health and family welfare department, recently reviewed the college’s operationalisation status and identified the faculty shortage as the main obstacle.The health commissioner noted that “despite earnest and sustained efforts” over more than a year, only 37 teaching faculty members had been mapped for the institution’s operation as a govt medical college. The National Medical Commission requires 97 faculty members for an annual intake of 50 MBBS students.“The health & family welfare department has undertaken repeated internal exercises to identify willing and qualified in-service doctors, issued three rounds of advertisements, and held consultations with doctors in Tura to address the shortage of specialists in the region,” a health department statement read.With the efforts yielding no favourable results, the govt has shifted its focus to expanding infrastructure at Tura Civil Hospital to meet the medical needs of people in the Garo Hills region.“To ensure that the infrastructure created benefits the people of Garo Hills without delay, it was recommended that the 150-bedded and 80-bedded blocks under construction within the Civil Hospital, Tura campus be completed and commissioned for patient care. This would also strengthen the bed capacity of Tura Civil Hospital as the teaching hospital,” the department said.
