Delhi: AIIMS Psychiatry follow-up clinic to be run solely by junior doctors

New Delhi: All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi has begun its follow-up clinic facility for those with psychiatric issues.

The facility would be run solely by junior doctors and would only entertain those patients who have already been diagnosed and have been seen in the Out Patient Department (OPD) of the premier hospital, according to sources.

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The Psychiatric Department of AIIMS has come under the radar lately for a variety of reasons.

Over the last year, three suicides, including that of a AIIMS Delhi doctor had been reported.

Dr Anurag Kumar who had been undergoing treatment for clinical depression at the hospital's psychiatric department had jumped from the 10th floor of the doctor's hostel at AIIMS.

Kumar, a junior doctor at the AIIMS Psychiatry Department had in titled his last blog post dated June 21, 2020 as 'A psychiatry trainee's struggle with Depression'.

According to sources, junior resident doctors of the psychiatric department are loaded with a lot of responsibility and have to make treatment-related decisions for their patients on their own, without the supervision of a senior doctor.

"In this clinic, there are no senior residents; only junior residents are working, which can be devastating for the patients," they added.

In other departments of AIIMS, junior resident doctors are not authorised to take independent decisions. The decision can only be taken after proper discussion with senior residents and faculty.

The junior resident doctors at AIIMS are at the hospital for the completion of their MD programme, and hence, they are not supposed to work unsupervised during clinical practices, said sources.

Sources also said there was another breach of rules in the Psychiatry departmet as its Head of the Department (HOD) is also heading the National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre.

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