Lucknow: The faculty retention crisis at King George’s Medical University (KGMU) has deepened, with four more senior doctors resigning simultaneously, bringing the total to seven in just two months.
The four doctors—Dr Manu Agarwal (Psychiatry), Dr Tanvi Bhargava (Anesthesia), Dr Ashok Kumar Gupta (Plastic Surgery), and Dr Karan Kaushik (Cardiac Anesthesia)—tendered their resignations by submitting three months’ salary in lieu of serving the notice period, a move that enabled their immediate release.
Dr Bhargava has joined SGPGIMS, while Dr Gupta has moved to the Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences. Dr Kaushik has accepted a position at a private hospital.
This development follows the departure of at least three other senior faculty members over the past month. These include Prof Ajay Verma (respiratory medicine), who was appointed head of department at RMLIMS; Prof Kshitij Srivastava, a neurosurgery faculty member and former chief proctor, who joined a private hospital in Alambagh; and Prof Adarsh Tripathi (psychiatry), who is currently serving his notice period.
The trend is not new. The university has previously lost several distinguished specialists, including Dr Madhukar Mittal (endocrine medicine), Dr Sant Pandey (nephrology), Dr Sunil Kumar (neurosurgery), and Dr Anupam Wakhlu (rheumatology), along with others from various super-speciality departments.
Senior faculty members at KGMU cite significant financial disparity as a primary cause of the exodus. A govt assistant professor’s salary starts at around Rs 1.25 lakh per month and rises to about Rs 3 lakh at the professor level. In stark contrast, private hospitals offer packages several times higher, often exceeding Rs 10 lakh per month, along with additional incentives.
Another major point of contention is the uniform pay structure for all faculty, regardless of specialisation. Super-specialists, who invest several extra years in their education and work longer clinical hours, receive the same pay and benefits as their counterparts in non-clinical departments.
KGMU spokesperson Prof KK Singh said, “The doctors who have resigned joined recently. Some have left for appointments in other institutions, while others cited personal reasons.”
However, KGMU Teachers’ Association has called for broader policy changes. Prof Santosh Kumar, the association’s general secretary, said, “The govt should formulate a policy for doctors educated in govt institutions. There is job security here and immense scope to serve the poor, which is not the case in the private sector.”
