AIIMS Patna, Raipur has lowest Faculty strength notes Parliament Committee

New Delhi: A parliamentary committee expressed concern over the shortage of staff in six AIIMS of Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Jodhpur, Patna, Raipur, and Rishikesh, noting that none of them have a satisfactory number of faculty and staff.

The department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare tabled in the parliament on Thursday said the high vacancies in faculty and non-faculty in the institutes necessitates concerted efforts to expedite the recruitment process. 

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The Committee noted that AIIMS Patna and Raipur have the lowest faculty strength among all the new AIIMS established under Phase 1 of the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY). The vacancy in faculty posts is 88 in AIIMS Jodhpur which is the lowest.

However, the vacancy is as high as 169 and 143 in AIIMS Patna and AIIMS Rishikesh, respectively.

The Committee also observed that in AIIMS Raipur, 27 faculty posts have been filled up on a contractual basis whereas, in AIIMS Bhubaneshwar and Patna, no faculty is working on contract.

The panel also advised the Union health ministry to prepare a roadmap for providing the necessary infrastructure, faculty, and para-medical staff to all the 22 AIIMS functioning and scheduled to be operationalised in the next three years.

According to it, due to the gap in the requirement and availability of the faculty and para-medical staff, besides the proper infrastructure, most of the AIIMS already functioning are not able to function to their full capacity.

It also expressed its concern that the scarcity of faculty and staff in the operational AIIMS is causing the "AIIMS, Delhi to be overburdened with patients, thus defeating the purpose of opening of new AIIMS all over the country".

The Committee thus recommended that the ministry should make efforts to prepare the faculty and paramedical staff by providing specialized training or encouraging institution involved in such research and training.

The Committee also observed that progress of most of the projects in 16 new AIIMS has been at different stages and recommended the ministry to track the progress of these projects in the 16 new AIIMS so that all the packages under the construction activities achieve a 100 percent mark within the envisaged timeframe.

The panel also observes that in some AIIMS where the construction work is not complete, the MBBS classes are running from temporary campuses.

"The Committee recommends the ministry to make all-out efforts so that the education of MBBS students does not suffer in the absence of adequate infrastructure and facilities.

"The ministry may take stock of the progress regularly in the new AIIMS so that the temporary infrastructure in good condition is available for conducting theory and practical classes in the institutes," the report said.

The committee also recommended the ministry to take up the matter of providing free land for AIIMS with the Government of Bihar and Haryana for construction of AIIMS Darbhanga and AIIMS Manethi, respectively.

The Committee, in its 111th report on the functioning of the New AIIMS, had also highlighted the gross shortage of professors/additional professor/associate professor/assistant professors in the new AIIMS.

"The committee understands that the shortage of doctors and specialists in the country is a major concern. However, the ministry must make constant and concerted efforts to improve the faculty and student ratio in the institutes and offer special packages/incentives and explore alternatives such as paid research collaboration, better working hours, etc to fill the vacant posts in the institutes," it stated in the report.

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