Author Topic: KEMU faces ‘acute dearth’ of senior faculty  (Read 1980 times)

Offline sb

  • Good Member Group
  • Hero Member
  • **
  • Posts: 29120
  • My Points +5/-0
  • Gender: Female
KEMU faces ‘acute dearth’ of senior faculty
« on: June 04, 2014, 11:43:36 AM »
KEMU faces ‘acute dearth’ of senior faculty
LAHORE:04 June: The top choice of students since decades, the King Edward Medical University (KEMU) faces an ‘acute shortage’ of senior faculty.
Many senior teachers are reluctant to join KEMU since it introduced a criteria set by the Higher Education Commission according to which a candidate has to quit regular job to join the university on a contract basis. A case in point is the department of basic sciences where a number of top slots have been lying vacant for two years or so, a senior official privy to the information told Dawn. Likewise, he said, all three positions of professors at the pathology department had been lying vacant for the last one year or so.
The shortage has affected the ongoing research activities and training programmes to a large extent,” he said.
Hematology Section: It offers wide range of facilities like bone marrow aspiration, trephine biopsies, diagnosis of various hematological diseases besides some other sensitive investigations including RBC morphology, Reticulocyte count, Coombs test, Osmotic Fragility, and Heinz body test, etc.
Professor of Hematology Dr Samina Naeem took pre retirement (LPR) leave in March last year and the seat had been lying vacant since then.
An assistant professor, Dr Shahida Niazi, is heading the histopathology department on an ad hoc basis and she has been awarded three-month contract on each turn to run this critical section of the institute.
Microbiology Section: This laboratory carries out culture sensitivity tests on various specimens like pus, sputum, throat swab, and fluids. Fluid examinations include CSF, ascitic, pleural, vitreous and pericardial fluids. Professor of Microbiology Dr Munir Ahmad retired in March last and the position has not filled so far and the services are being provided by junior doctors.
Histopathology Section: This section provides the service of Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) test and cytology in addition to tissue biopsies. It also caters to a large number of patients referred from various departments of Mayo Hospital (general surgery, neurosurgery, urology, ophthalmology, dermatology, and paediatric surgery) and its affiliated hospitals including Lady Willingdon and Lady Aitchison hospitals.
Professor of Histopathology Dr Mulazam Husain Bukhari had resigned from his service in April 2013 and the position has been vacant since then.

The pathology department is even short of some other senior academic staff, including associate professors.

According to the official, some other critical programmes were also affected due to absence of senior medics in the pathology department like the PCR lab which was established in 2009 for Influenza Surveillance Project of NIH in collaboration with CDC, USA.

Another programme for diagnosis of various subtypes of Hepatitis (A, B, C, D, E) by ELIZA technique being run in collaboration with National Institute of Health, Islamabad and USAID has also been affected.

Pharmacology and Therapeutics: This department is the oldest one of the 150-year-old institute. The pharmacology subject acts as a foundation stone on which the entire clinical empire is based.

The official said it was for the first time in the history of the varsity that the department was functioning without a professor for the last eight months or so. The position fell vacant after the transfer of Prof Mohammad Zahid and it was also short of an associate and two assistant professors.

Biochemistry department has been functioning without professor and associate professor for the last two years. An assistant professor is currently heading this unit.

The department of Oral & Maxillofacial surgery of the KEMU is said to be the only designated and full-fledged surgical unit in the whole province and has been functioning without professor for the last one year or so.

Professor of community medicine Dr Maaz Ahmad was transferred and posted as Institute of Public Health (IPH) dean two years ago and the seat had been vacant since then. At present assistant professor Dr Saira Afzal is heading this department.

KEMU is the only teaching institute which houses four medical units. Of them two are without regular professors for the last many months.

Two more critical departments, including cardiac surgery and paediatric surgery, have been functioning without regular professors for the last couple of years. These units are also short of some associate and assistant professors.

All positions in the Oncology department including professor, associate professors and assistant professors have been lying vacant for some months.

Four positions of associate and assistant professors are also vacant at the four surgical units of the varsity.

The ‘silence’ of the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan and Pakistan Medical and Dental Council over faculty shortage is being considered as one of the major factors behind poor state of affairs at the university.

KEMU Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Faisal Masood said: “The senior faculty is not available in the market since the government has introduced south Punjab policy.”

Under this policy, he said, senior doctors were transferred from public sector hospitals of major cities like Lahore to medical institutions of the underprivileged districts.

He said the newly-established four medical institutions were also in dire need of teachers in basic sciences. “The mushroom growth of private medical colleges in Punjab has also been one of the factors behind shortage of teachers,” he said adding the owners of private medical colleges were offering handsome salary packages to them.

He said the university introduced short-and long-term strategies to overcome the shortage of senior faculty in basic sciences and other disciplines. Under the long-term plan, he said KEMU had started hiring services of assistant professors according to the HEC criteria and 31 APs were recruited during the last one year. They would be able to get top positions after promotions.

As per the short-term strategy, he said the varsity would make decisions on rules and regulations in the coming syndicate meeting to meet the dearth of senior medics.Published in Dawn, June 4th, 2014.
If you born poor, its not your fault....But if you die poor, its your fault...."Bill Gates"