Doctors Oppose Move To Raise Retirement Age of Medical Faculty to 70

Hyderabad: State medical associations have strongly opposed a proposal to raise the retirement age for faculty at state-run medical schools from 65 to 70, warning that the move would hinder hiring, delay promotions and affect the career prospects of thousands of young doctors.

Members of Telangana Senior Resident Doctors Association (T-SRDA), Telangana Junior Doctors Association (T-JUDA), Health Reform Doctors Association (HRDA) and Federation of All India Medical Associations (FAIMA) issued statements urging the government to withdraw the proposal. They warned that doctors could resort to protests and strikes if the proposal is approved.

According to the associations, there are 2,786 vacant faculty posts in Telangana’s government medical colleges. During the Health and Healthcare Recruitment Board’s recent recruitment campaign, only 364 of the 607 assistant professor positions could be filled, while 243 had to be moved forward.

Assistant professor and representative of HRDA Telangana, Dr. Karthik N. said that any move to increase the retirement age would seriously undermine the career prospects of thousands of young specialists and negatively affect the long-term growth and sustainability of the medical academy.

The association argued that extending the retirement age would stagnate the promotions of assistant professors, associate professors and full professors, while also reducing opportunities for senior residents and newly qualified specialists who want to join academic medicine.

Doctors also called the proposal an indication of failures in workforce planning and recruiting. “The government’s reliance on raising the retirement age is a clear admission of administrative failure. Rather than fixing a broken, slow-moving recruitment mechanism, they are choosing to close the vacancy gap by hindering the career progression of the next generation,” the joint statement said.

FAIMA national president Dr Srinath D. highlighted the challenges faced by young experts. “There are 1,200 senior assistants (2025 batch) finishing seniority in April. We are fully qualified to join as assistant professors, but regular recruitment is ongoing and contractual work has been paused without any extension.”

“On the other hand, nearly 400 NEET-SS aspirants had to wait for counseling for more than three months. Due to these overlapping systemic failures, young doctors are being pushed into severe financial and mental distress. While the government is considering increasing the retirement age to 70, the new generation of experts is sitting idle on the bench,” he said.