All India Institutes of Medical Sciences, outside Delhi
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Staff/ faculty issues
2016: shortage of staff
See graphic:
Vacant faculty posts as % of sanctioned, city-wise, 2016
2018: shortage of staff
Rema Nagarajan, New AIIMS plagued by huge vacancies: Panel, April 1, 2018: The Times of India
From: Rema Nagarajan, New AIIMS plagued by huge vacancies: Panel, April 1, 2018: The Times of India
The parliamentary standing committee on health has expressed concern over the fact that work on six AIIMSlike institutions started in 2010 in phase-I of the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) remained incomplete even as more such institutions are being announced and taken up for construction. Even in these first six AIIMS-like institutions, only 38.5% of faculty positions and 18% of non-faculty positions have been filled, the panel noted. Yet, 13 more AIIMS-like institutions have been announced since then, of which construction has started in four.
In its report on demands for grants of the department of health and family welfare for 2018-19, it observed that only 704 faculty posts had been filled in the six AIIMSlike institutions out of the sanctioned 1,830 as on January 1, 2018. Only 4,202 posts had been filled out of 22,656 sanctioned posts for non-faculty positions, with an additional 2,548 posts being filled up on an outsourced basis. With this level of shortage, almost all these institutions have been taking in MBBS students since 2012. The revelation about the difficulties in staffing even central government funded AIIMS-like institutions raises the question of how the government expects to find the required personnel for upgrading 24 district and referral hospitals to medical colleges, as was announced in the Budget this year.
The PMSSY had been launched in 2006 with the objectives of correcting regional imbalances in the availability of affordable and reliable tertiary healthcare services and to augment facilities for quality medical education in the country. Along with setting up AIIMS-like institutions, PMSSY also funds the upgradation of existing general medical colleges (GMCs). Of the 13 GMCs taken up in phase-I, 10 have finished upgrading. Another 39 GMCs taken up in phase-II have just started upgradation work.
The shortage of doctors in rural India and hugely expensive private medical colleges having almost 3,300 more seats than government medical colleges, the need for the government to augment the seats for reliable and affordable medical education is obvious.
However, the parliamentary panel was of the view that funding for PMSSY remains suboptimal. It wondered how the targets would be met within the set timeframes. The health secretary told the committee that the projected demand for PMSSY scheme was Rs 8,398 crore out of which only Rs 3,825 crore, or less than half, has been allocated.
Had the department undertaken a critical analysis of the requirement of faculty and non-faculty staff at the six AIIMS-like institutes, the issue of vacant posts would have been addressed, stated the report. Patients from Bihar and Uttarakhand continue to burden AIIMS, Delhi as AIIMS Patna and AIIMS Rishikesh are not up to the mark, noted the report.
The committee urged the department to urgently fill up the vacant posts at the earliest, so that basic healthcare facilities were decentralised and dependence of patients on AIIMS Delhi is reduced.
