Every government medical institution in the state would have an attached nursing college, according to Girish Mahajan, Maharashtra’s minister of medical education. At a gathering held at the Government Medical College in Aurangabad, Mahajan stated that the goal was to have a pool of nurses who were well educated. The announcement is a result of government initiatives to upgrade healthcare facilities statewide.

Mahajan further said that the government would be favorably considering a request to expand the health facility at Paithan in the district from 30 to 100 beds. Imtiaz Jaleel, a member of the Aurangabad district assembly, and Union minister Dr. Bhagwat Karad were also in attendance.

By hiring on a contract basis, Mahajan complied with Karad’s requirement that the state’s government hospitals fill the vacant doctor positions. He claimed that 1,432 residential doctor positions had been approved and that 778 medical professionals had already gone through recruitment interviews and would shortly join the ranks. The minister added that 5,056 other group D and C job openings would also be filled, totaling close to 15,000 positions, within the next two months.

The programme also covered the subject of organ donation, with Mahajan drawing attention to India’s low donation rate. Mahajan claims that compared to the West, where 3,500 out of every 10,000 people give organs, India only has one out of every 10,000 people do so. He demanded that organ donation change from being an event to becoming a movement.

Jaleel, however, highlighted the shortage of teaching staff and attacked the government’s initiatives to establish other medical institutions in the state. He asserted that the state government had issued a notice requiring current employees to transfer to other districts because the National Medical Commission was about to conduct an inspection. Jaleel pleaded with the administration to resolve the issue of open positions and to halt development projects until there were a sufficient number of teachers on staff.

Jaleel also questioned the delay in class 4 staff appointments at the Government Medical College in Aurangabad.

The government’s attempts to upgrade the healthcare facilities in Maharashtra are admirable, but in order for the new facilities to function successfully, the staffing issue must also be resolved. The establishment of nursing programmes at all government medical schools is a step in the right direction toward addressing the shortage of qualified nursing staff. But the government should act quickly to address the issue of the teaching staff shortage in order to ease Jaleel’s worries.