TELANGANA'S MEDICAL COLLEGE EXPANSION: BUILT TO HEAL, LEFT TO ROT

From shuttered duty rooms and unsafe hostels to sprawling, unopened hospitals, Telangana's bold push to set up a government medical college in every district has resulted in an overstretched, understaffed system.

- Siddharth Kumar Singh

Students are left to teach themselves, doctors go unpaid and faculty shortage cripple learning. exposes a public healthcare vision mired in delays, neglect and a widening gap between promise and practice

On the otherwise quiet stretch of Road Number 4 in Telangana's Siddipet district, about 100 kilometres north of Hyderabad, one building stands out — not for its design, but for the activity it draws. Rickshaws, hatchbacks, private cars and ambulances are parked in a haphazard line along the narrow tar road. With little room for four-wheelers inside, the road outside becomes a make-shift parking lot for those visiting the Government General Hospital, Siddipet.

Step past the entrance and a rectangular lobby opens up. To the left, a queue snakes around the Outpatient Registration counter. To the right, rows of plastic chairs are packed with patients and attendants — women in saris fanning themselves, elderly men on walking sticks, young parents cradling toddlers. Though outpatient hours run from 9.30 a.m. to 2 p.m., the hallway is full by 11 a.m.

Adding a splash of colour to this scene is a strip of Cherial painting across the top of the hospital walls - vivid red panels telling traditional tales, a nod to Telangana's folk art legacy. It is an oddly comforting juxtaposition: cultural flourish amid clinical fatigue.

Down the corridor is the duty doctor's room — a modest 15x8 feet, with two foldable metal beds lining opposite walls. What catches the eye isn't the squeeze, but the far wall, or the lack of it. In its place is a large corrugated metal shutter, the kind one would see fronting a kirana shop. Only two brick pillars frame it; a white ceramic wash-basin clings to one side.