With State officials awaiting court orders on unfilled super speciality seats reserved for in-service candidates, government doctors have warned that forfeiting these seats could reduce the availability of skilled specialist manpower and gradually weaken Tamil Nadu’s public healthcare system in the long term.TN reserves 50% of its DM/MCh super speciality seats for in-service candidates. Of the 215 seats earmarked, only 74 were filled this year. Doctors said several seats in cardiothoracic surgery, paediatric surgery, neurosurgery, plastic surgery, urology, vascular surgery remained vacant after two rounds of counselling. The State did not surrender the vacant seats to the All India Quota (AIQ). A petition relating to reversion of TN’s in-service seats to the AIQ pool was filed in the Supreme Court, halting the second round of counselling conducted by the Medical Counselling Committee.Officials in the Directorate of Medical Education and Research said that they were waiting for the court order and have not surrendered the vacant seats to the AIQ pool as of Saturday.Government doctors, however, expressed concern over the fate of the vacant seats. They pointed out that in the past two years, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), lowered the qualifying percentile after the State surrendered the vacant in-service seats to AIQ, thereby doing injustice to service doctors of the State.P. Saminathan, president of Service Doctors and Post Graduates Association said the association is of the view that whenever qualifying marks are decreased for AIQ counselling by DGHS, the same should be extended to TN’s service candidates and the State government needs to take steps to conduct further rounds of counseling.Forfeiting seats will serve a fatal blow to TN’s public healthcare, a senior doctor said, charging the State government with failing to safeguard the State’s interest after a legal battle was won in the Supreme Court six years ago to obtain the service quota.Reasoning out why service candidates are turning away from taking the seats, he said, “Dwindling employment opportunities is one reason. The State government actively reduced the number of super speciality jobs within the public sector (instance of the Government Order 4D (2) on restructuring and the recent conversion of 352 junior resident posts). Even if a candidate completes a super speciality degree, a proper, relevant posting is no longer guaranteed. Zero financial incentives is another reason. There are no additional increments, career advancements, or salary benefits reflecting the immense effort required to complete a super speciality degree.”Round-the-clock demanding branches like MCh Cardiothoracic Surgery, Neurosurgery, and Vascular Surgery are highly valued with lucrative packages in corporate hospitals. In contrast, the TN government offers poor infrastructure and stagnant pay for grueling work, he added.Surrendering the unfilled seats to the All India pool will have severe, long-term consequences for the common man, doctors said. Life saving manpower will dwindle. The public healthcare system will face a drought of skilled, lifesaving specialists. Poor patients requiring complex, lifesaving procedures will be forced to turn to private hospitals, doctors said.“There will be a systemic collapse of super speciality departments. This is a symptom of administrative negligence. By failing to make government service viable, lucrative, and respectful for superspecialists, the State has actively pushed candidates away, forfeited its own seats to the AIQ and compromised the future of affordable healthcare for the poor,” he noted.Another senior doctor said that this will derail the public health sector of TN. In-service reservation has been a robust and pioneering method, unique to TN. As a result, many super speciality departments such as neurology, nephrology, cardiology and urology have crossed five decades of existence. “In the past five years, only a handful of non-service candidates have joined service. If the trend of losing seats continues, super speciality departments will suffer,” he said. Published - May 31, 2026 12:32 am IST