Six AIIMS functioning with barely 31% faculty

Six All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in India are facing an acute shortage of doctors and non-teaching staff, Union Health Minister JP Nadda said in Rajya Sabha.

Of 1,830 faculty posts, barely 583 (31 per cent) have been filled up. In each of the six AIIMS — Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Jodhpur, Patna, Raipur, and Rishikesh, 305 posts have been sanctioned. The institute at Bhopal has only 60 posts filled; Raipur with 74 posts filled and Patna with 52 posts filled are worse off.

While there are up to 22,656 posts of non-teaching staff, barely 3,862 appointments have been done, whereas 83 per cent posts are lying vacant.

Even as the Union Health Ministry is under much strain to fill up posts at existing AIIMS, four new AIIMS at Andhra Pradesh (Rs1618 crores), West Bengal (Rs1754 crores), Maharashtra (Rs1577 crores) and Uttar Pradesh (Rs1011 crores) have been announced.

"The site at Mahadev Jharkhandi, Part II, Tehsil Sadar, Gorakhpur, has been finalised for setting up AIIMS in Uttar Pradesh. HLL Infratech Services Ltd (HITES) has been appointed as Executing Agency for the project. Pre-investment activities of soil survey, topographical survey have been completed" said a health ministry official.

Ambitiously enough 13 additional government medical colleges (GMC) have been shortlisted for AIIMS upgradation. "For each GMC, the cost approved is Rs200 crore with Central share constituting of Rs120 crore and State share constituting of Rs80 crore," said the official.