Shimla, Sept 13 — Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu today sat down with top officials to review the state’s medical education sector in the absence of Health and education Ministers. Big promises were made. Big gaps remained.
The CM announced that within a year, Himachal’s medical colleges will see “significant improvements.”
Robotic surgery is already in Chamiyana and Tanda, he said, and will soon spread to other colleges.
Automated labs worth ₹25 crore each are lined up for Chamiyana, Hamirpur and Chamba.
He added: A new Academic Block in Chamba, hostels for doctors, and new nursing colleges at Nahan, Hamirpur, Kullu and Chamba are also on paper.
But the absence of Health Minister Dr. Dhani Ram Shandil and Education Minister Rohit Thakur in the meeting raised eyebrows.
If ministers aren’t even in the review meetings, who will chase deadlines? Who will fix accountability?
The bigger issue, however, is not labs or machines. It is people. Faculty and doctors are few and far between in many medical colleges.
In the monsoon Vidhan Sabha session, members flagged vacant posts in medical colleges and rural hospitals that runs in excess of many hundreds.
At Jogindernagar Civil Hospital, only three doctors are posted against 19 sanctioned.
In Shillai, 11 posts remain vacant, leaving one CHC without a single regular doctor.
Even the High Court had to step in recently, extending the tenure of a senior faculty at Ner Chowk Medical College, citing the “severe shortage of teachers.”
Without professors and specialists, shiny new labs and robotic surgeries mean little.
The government has floated a plan for a common cadre of faculty across all colleges.
But medical teachers’ associations like SAMDCOT warn it could backfire—disrupt seniority, trigger chaotic transfers, and worsen instability.
So while the CM talks of funds and futuristic machines, the basics remain unattended.
Shortage of Doctors in peripheral hospitals. Professors are scarce. Students are worried. Patients are still forced to travel out of the state for treatment.
What to talk about patients, even ministers and CMs move out of state for critical treatment.
Himachal’s healthcare story now hangs on one question: will this review meeting be another round of routine announcements, or the moment when promises turn into real action?
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