12-07-2025
Covid gone, PG doctors who served at TIMS left in the lurch
HYDERABAD: Four years after completing their year-long posting, over 100 postgraduate doctors deployed at the Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (TIMS), Gachibowli during the Covid-19 pandemic continue to await formal recognition of their service.
The delay has affected their eligibility for assistant professor posts in government medical colleges (GMCs), as the health department has yet to acknowledge their service under senior residency.
In 2020, around 120 PG doctors from GMCs were deployed for emergency Covid duty at TIMS, with an assurance that their one-year service would be treated as senior residency under the administration of Osmania Medical College (OMC), a prerequisite to apply for assistant professor positions.
However, the doctors were issued experience letters from TIMS and not OMC, leaving their senior residency status in dispute. The TIMS certificate is not accepted by state GMCs, private medical colleges or the Health Ministry, as TIMS is not a recognised teaching institution under any state GMC. In contrast, hospitals such as ENT or Niloufer fall under OMC's administrative control and are recognised for teaching purposes.
Dr Md Jahangir told TNIE: 'We served during the peak of the Covid crisis, risking our lives. Now, our experience is not recognised anywhere. The certificate by TIMS is not valid, and we are not eligible for the upcoming assistant professor recruitment. It has left us in a difficult position.'
Doctors said they were not offered counselling for senior residency postings, a process usually conducted based on merit lists. Instead, they were directly informed of their postings at TIMS without being given any options or clear information about recognition. At the time, they were assured of experience certificates from OMC.
